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I 



SERMONS 

PREACHED IN — 



THE CHAPEL 

OF 

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 



BY 

WILLIAM VhEWELL, D.D., 

MASTER OF THE COLLEGE. 




Aau,7rdbia e^opres Siadocxrovo-iv aWrjXois. 



LONDON: 
JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. 
CAMBRIDGE : J. & J. J. DEIGHTON. 



M.DCCC.XLVII. 




$rtnteti at tfje ©muersftp fress, 



TO THE 

REVEREND WILLIAM CARUS, M.A., 

SENIOR DEAN OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 



My dear Dean, 

There is no one to whom I can dedicate 
these Sermons with so much propriety as to you. 
You were present at most or all of the occasions on 
which they were delivered ; and if there be in them 
any thoughts and words suited to those occasions, no 
one will appreciate such passages more quickly and 
more kindly than you will do. 

I rejoice to think that these Sermons, delivered 
in our College Chapel, are likely to call up in your 
mind gratifying and thankful recollections of the devout 
demeanour of the Congregation, and of the religious 
thoughtfulness which, so far as the human eye can 
judge, all, young and old alike, bring to such acts of 
worship. I know how much you have always had such 
a result at heart: and I know that, like myself, you 
look back upon the long course of improvement in 
such matters which we have witnessed, and have 
perpetually endeavoured to forward, with feelings of 
gratitude to God, and of hope for his further blessing 
on our ordinances and institutions. 



IV 



DEDICATION. 



We are now, my dear Dean, very old fellow- 
labourers in the service of our beloved College : and I 
rejoice to have an opportunity of expressing to you my 
gratitude — a feeling in which the whole College shares — 
for your unwearied exertions in the promotion of piety, 
virtue, and sound learning among us. 

That you may long enjoy the satisfaction of seeing 
us make still further progress in those respects, is the 
earnest wish and prayer of one who is, 

My dear Dean, 

Your affectionate Friend, 

W. WHEWELL. 



Trinity College, 

November \5, 1847. 



PREFACE. 



PjpHE following Sermons are not published on 
account of any theological value which is claimed 
for them: but it was thought that some of those 
who heard them delivered might be glad to have an 
opportunity of recurring to them; and that other 
persons, on various accounts, might wish to see the 
character of our College Chapel Sermons, so far as 
these examples represent it. 

The Second and Third of the Sermons were 
composed when the preacher entertained the inten- 
tion of introducing into the Series of Discourses 
which he had to deliver, an exposition of the place 
and Office of Religion in a State. This intention 
was afterwards abandoned. 

The first Nineteen of these Discourses were 
preached on those days in each Term when the 
Holy Communion is administered to the Members 
of the College, and a Sermon addressed to them by 
the Master. The remaining ones, as well as several 



PREFACE. 



others, were delivered at various periods by the 
Author, as a Fellow of the College. The two Com- 
memoration Sermons have already been printed, but 
not published. The " College Student" was published 
a few years ago, as one of the " Sermons by XXXIX 
Living Divines of the Church of England." 

Of the Twentieth Sermon with its Notes, it is 
hardly necessary to remind the reader, that the 
notice of the distinguished men of Trinity College 
which it contains, includes a portion only of such 
persons, selected casually, or at least with reference 
to some circumstance which drew attention at the 
moment. 



CONTENTS, 



SERMON I. 

THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 

EPHESIANS IV. 1. 

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye ivalk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called 

SERMON II. 

THE SOUL. 

MATTHEW XVI. 26. 

For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul 

SERMON III. 

RELIGION AND LAW. 

PROVERBS XV. 3. 

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON IV. 



HUMILITY. 



EPHESIANS IV. 1, and part of Verse 2. 



PAGE 



I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk 
worthy of the vocation wJierewith ye are called, with all lowliness 
and meekness . 56 



SERMON V. 

THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 

MATTHEW V. part of Verse 13. 
Ye are the salt of the earth 69 



SERMON VI. 

THE PSALMS. 

ACTS II. 29—31. 

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch 
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with 
us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that 
God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of Ms 
loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on 
his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of 
Christ, that His sold was not left in hell, neither His flesh did 
see corruption 85 



SERMON VIL 

NATIONALITY. 
ISAIAH XII. 6. 



Cry out and shout, thou inhahitant of Zion ; for great is the Holy 
One of Israel in the midst of thee 104 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON VIII. 

PRESSING FORWARD. 
PHILIPPIANS III. 13, 14. 

PAGE 

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing 
I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching 
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus . , 118 

SERMON IX. 

ADMIRATION OF MEN. 
ISAIAH II. 22. 

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils ; for wherein is 

he to be accounted of? 135 

SERMON X. 

LIVING TO OTHERS. 

ROMANS XIV. 7- 

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man duth to himself . . 150 



SERMON XI. 

OLD THINGS AND NEW. 

MATTHEW XIII. 52. 

Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like 
unto a man that is an householder, which bring eth forth out of 
his treasure things new and old 164 

SERMON XII. 

DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



HEBREWS X. 24. 

Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works .180 

w. c. s. b 



X 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



SERMON XIII. 

THY KINGDOM COME. 
MATTHEW VI. 10. 

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven ... 196 

SERMON XIV. 

THESE BONDS. 

ACTS XXVI. 29. 

And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but all that Iiear 
me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, 
except these bonds 212 



SERMON XV. 

ALL THINGS WOKK FOR GOOD. 

ROMANS VIII. part of Verse 23. 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that 

love God , 228 



SERMON XVI. 

THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 

JOHN XVII. 15. 

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that 
thou shouldest keep them from the evil 246 

SERMON XVII. 

A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 

PSALM CXL1V. 15. 

Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that 
people whose God is the Lord . . 261 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



SERMON XVIII. 

GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 
1 PETER I. 13. 

PAGE 

Wherefore gird up tlie loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to 
the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the 
revelation of Jesus Christ 286 

SERMON XIX. 

FAITH. 
LUKE XVII. 5. 

And the Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. , . . 305 

SERMON XX. 

COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 1828. 

ISAIAH XXXIII. 20. 

Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities ; thine eyes shall see 
Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be 
taken down 324 

SERMON XXI. 

COLLEGE COMMEMORATION, 1838. 

HEBREWS III. 13. 

Exhort one another daily, ivhile it 'is called To-day . 343 



Xll 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON XXII. 

THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 
ACTS II. 38. 

PAGE 

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of 
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and 
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost 363 

Notes 38 1 



SERMON I. 



(1841. Michaelmas Term.) 



Ephesians IV. 1. 

/ therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye 
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. 

TN this Epistle to the Ephesians, as in others of 
J- his epistles, St. Paul, in his address to his Chris- 
tian disciples, makes mention of his being a prisoner ; 
and connects this his condition with his office as a 
minister and apostle of the Christian dispensation. 
He speaks here, and in several other passages, not 
only of his being a prisoner, but the prisoner of the 
Lord; — not only of his bonds, but of his bonds in 
Christ. He seems to put forward his captivity as 
one of the ways in which he was separated from 
the common course of human life, and designated 
for a peculiar and divine service : he points to his 
chains as badges of an especial station, of a most 
grave and elevated office : he looks upon his jailors 
as persons acting under the permission, or rather by 
the authority and direction, of his heavenly Master. 
And hence, he gladly and repeatedly calls the atten- 
w. c. s. B 



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SERMON I. 



tion of those whom he addresses, to this circumstance 
in his condition ; and plainly expects that the recol- 
lection of it shall add weight and interest to his 
admonitions. And the expectation was entirely sup- 
ported and justified by considerations such as he 
himself mentions. For this imprisonment was the 
result of a zealous discharge of the duties which 
had been imposed upon him by his peculiar call to 
preach the Gospel. "/ Paul" he had said at the 
beginning of the preceding chapter, " am the pri- 
soner of Christ, as ye know ; for I doubt not that ye 
have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God 
which is given me to you Gentiles. Of this dispen- 
sation I was made a minister, according to the gift 
of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual 
working of his power." And though this ministry 
has led me to imprisonment and bonds, these serve 
but to bind upon me more firmly the great business 
of my life ; — that which must be the business of more 
than my life, of my life and of my death ; since I 
already know, by no doubtful notices, that a death 
in the service and honour of my Master awaits me. 
And on this my lot I look with trust and joy. " It 
is" he tells the Philippians, " my earnest expectation 
and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed; 
but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, 
Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be 
by life or by death." He might well expect that such 
a steadfastness of mind, such a love of his Master's 
work, a willingness like this to spend and be spent 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 3 

in the service of Christ, would draw to him the 
hearts of his Christian brethren, and make them 
listen with reverence and affection to his doctrine 
and exhortation. To be, in this sense, the prisoner 
of Christ was indeed a distinction and a dignity. To 
be thus separated from all that was small and trivial 
in the business of human life ; — to be set apart en- 
tirely to the greatest and most glorious office which 
man can have to fulfil, namely, the office of pro- 
claiming God's plan for man's salvation, and drawing- 
men to accept it ; — to be bound so that he could not 
lay his hands upon any mere earthly employment, 
save as subservient to his heavenly call ; — to be com- 
pelled to go on from stage to stage of ministerial 
zeal and holy fervour, gathering to him, as he went 
along, the hearts of his believers ; — to pass, in this 
way, from one Christian dignity to another, with the 
crown of martyrdom before his eyes as the last great 
distinction of his earthly career; — to be and to do 
thus, and to have a soul so purified and elevated by 
the grace of God as to rejoice with thankfulness in 
such a lot; — this was truly to be strong by being 
weak ; to be a sovereign by being a prisoner ; to find 
in adversity and death a fountain of eternal life and 
joy. So living and so feeling, Paul might well trust 
that others would be animated, and not discouraged, 
by the aspect of his sufferings and dangers. Many 
of the brethren in the Lord might naturally wax 
confident, as he says they did, at the sight of bonds 
worn in such a spirit. They might feel that it was 

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4 



SERMON I. 



indeed a privilege and a gain to be, in this way, the 
prisoner of Christ. 

This destination, this distinction, this privilege, 
and the power over the minds of his disciples which 
accompanied it, was a peculiar and personal charac- 
teristic of St. Paul, and of the great apostles and 
martyrs who, like him, preached the Gospel through 
many forms of danger and trial, even to the end. 
In this original sense, Paul was especially and emi- 
nently the prisoner of the Lord. We, living in a 
Christian land, where men call themselves at least 
the servants of Paul's Master, the disciples of Paul's 
school;— we, placed here in the enjoyment, or at 
least within the reach, of that religious truth, of 
those hopes and prospects, which made the substance 
of Paul's preaching; — we, whose daily life is cast 
among those who profess to worship the Lord ; — we 
are in no great danger of being the prisoner of the 
Lord in the same sense in which St. Paul was. Men 
will not throw us into chains because we name the 
name of Christ, and preach his doctrine. We may go 
through life, calling upon men to seek their salvation 
in the Lord Jesus, and yet not be consigned to the 
walls of a prison or the custody of a jailor. We 
may, if our infirmity allows, so far as concerns 
our objects and employments, be like unto Paul in 
all things except those his bonds. Even if we make 
it our profession and constant business to preach 
Christ and Him crucified, His precepts and His re- 
demption ; — even if week after week, day after day, 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 



5 



upon stated occasions, and on those which chance 
and inclination supply, we offer ourselves to men as 
the ministers of the Lord, we still are free from all 
risk of the danger which beset St. Paul's ministerial 
course. We may go on our way, not only safely, 
but well regarded, listened to, assented to ; it may 
be, esteemed and honoured. Blessed be God, the 
case is not now as it was when St. Paul went 
from city to city, through labours, perils, watchings, 
beaten, scourged, stoned, dying daily. We are now 
enjoying the blessed results of those very dangers 
and troubles which he and the other early preachers 
of Christianity underwent. They not only laboured, 
but they laboured to good purpose, as, in God's 
cause, they well might hope to do. They not only 
preached Christ, but they christianized the world. 
They produced a change in the earth, so that the 
Gentiles learnt to call upon the name of the Lord. 
The isles submitted themselves to the sway of Christ's 
kingdom, and acknowledged his ministers as guides 
and benefactors. Those who came as his messengers, 
were no longer brought before kings and Caesars in 
bonds and as malefactors, but were received as friends, 
admitted as counsellors, obeyed as men in authority. 
They were no longer like Paul the prisoner of the 
Lord, but like Paul the ambassador of the Lord; 
and men willingly and gladly invested them with 
some of the dignity and honour and power which 
seemed fitly to belong to so great an embassy. 
In the literal sense of the words, then, the min- 



6 



SERMON I, 



ister of God's dispensation is no longer the prisoner 
of the Lord ; — no longer in bonds and under jailors. 
But yet in a certain sense, the ministers of religion 
may still be said to be prisoners of the Lord. Their 
hands are no longer bound with material chains; 
they are no longer restrained from the general liberty 
of going where they please and doing what they will : 
but yet they cannot do all that their own pleasure or 
their own will may suggest. They are bound by the 
ties of their profession, which are, or which should 
be, stronger than chains of iron ; — they are held fast, 
not by external warders, but by an internal convic- 
tion of their office and duty. They have no outward 
constraint or violence to fear ; but they feel that woe 
is to them if they preach not the Gospel. They may, 
like other men, go this way and that, lay their hands 
to this employment and that, so far as outward com- 
pulsion is concerned ; but yet they feel that they are 
really placed in one particular path, and can move 
only along that, and no other way : — that they are 
limited to a special field of action, and may not wan- 
der at will, and delight themselves with any pleasure 
or any occupation which may for the moment gratify 
their fancy. They are not their own, they are bought 
with a price, and set upon a task ; — they are bound 
to abstain from all lusts, from all appearance of 
evil ; — to be instant in season and out of season ; — 
to consider themselves as set apart to the peculiar 
service of God ; as separated from the common 
course of secular occupations and pursuits, the com- 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 



7 



raon licence of worldly pleasures, the common selfish- 
ness of worldly schemes, as much as if the thickest 
prison-walls separated them from the common world. 
They have Christ's yoke upon them; — they are the 
prisoner's of the Lord, 

And as this is the condition of all those who 
have been dedicated to the ministry of God's Word, 
it is peculiarly the condition of those who are placed 
in any situation of eminent trust and authority in 
Christ's household. All such persons are especially 
the prisoners of the Lord. They are not free to do 
aught, except that which their duty and their office 
point out as fit to be done. The laws of God and of 
man, the interests of religion and good morals, peace 
and order, justice and temperance, purity of conduct 
and of conversation, high aims and elevated thoughts, 
Christian demeanour and Christian character, — which 
all who profess themselves servants of God are bound 
to promote and uphold according to their power, — 
those who are rulers and leaders in Christ's flock, 
are more particularly bound to care for, according 
to their greater trust and authority. Their duty to 
advance all these objects is higher, as their dignity 
is higher : they are under a more manifest guardian- 
ship of external circumstances and restraints, which 
prevent their going this way or that. In all matters 
in which morality and religion, order and decency are 
concerned, they have no choice whether or not they 
will be zealous on the side of the good and right. 
If others shrink, they must stand firm ; if others fail, 



8 



SERMON t. 



they must endure ; if others swerve, they must hold 
their way right onwards. They carry in their hands 
the banner of the righteous cause, and they must 
hold it upright however the winds blow, and however 
hotly the battle rages around it. Against fierceness 
of foes, against faintings and waverings, doubtings and 
dissensions of friends, through evil report and good 
report, through adversity and prosperity, through 
life and even to death, they must pursue the course 
which the commands of God and the purpose of their 
office marks out for them. To turn them from this, 
all other impulses must be subdued or resisted. All 
movements of personal regard or affection, all ad- 
miration for intellectual endowments and accom- 
plishments, all prospect of worldly consequences, 
must be cast aside, when they are urged as im- 
pediments to the sway of the supreme demands of 
piety, purity, and order. In regard to all such 
matters, we are the prisoners of the Lord. Our hands 
are not free. We cannot loosen the bonds that chain 
us to his service ; — we cannot turn aside from the 
path along which we are set to march. Along this 
path Law and Conscience, the two ministers of his 
will, who expound his purposes, and do his bidding, 
conduct our course, attending us on the right hand 
and on the left ; walking by our sides, with tranquil 
and stedfast countenances, with grave and measured 
steps; but making us feel that we may not deviate 
or stop, lest they should turn upon us their into- 
lerable looks of calm, yet awful condemnation. 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 



9 



But while we thus declare ourselves, like St. Paul, 
the prisoners of the Lord, wearing his bonds, and 
confined to his territory, let us not forget to rejoice in 
our bonds, as Paul also does. We are prisoners, it may 
be, but willing prisoners, since our bonds only prevent 
us from wandering into a region of sin, and evil, and 
error, where our souls could find nothing to rest upon 
in peace and comfort. We are confined within a 
Goshen of light and sunshine, and prevented only 
from falling into that outer darkness where is real 
captivity. The restraints which compel us to lend 
our aid, upon all occasions, to virtue and piety, to 
gentleness and goodness, compel us to that course out 
of which we should seek in vain for any peace of 
mind or joy of heart. We are indeed the bondser- 
vants of our heavenly Master, but still, we feel that 
his yoke is easy and his burden light. We are con- 
strained to dwell in his presence, but where else 
would we seek to abide? Do we desire to be free, 
that we may have it in our power to throw down all 
barriers which stand in the way of vice and disorder ? 
Do we wish to quit the region in which God's law 
prevails, in which his will is regarded — the region 
which is calmed and brightened by a pervading rever- 
ence for him ; in which men are invited to dwell 
with earnestness and tranquillity on the thought of 
their duties here, and their admission to the presence 
of the glorious Ruler of Heaven and Earth hereafter ? 
Do we wish to quit this region of heavenly calm and 
sunshine for the space which environs it on every side, 



10 



SERMON I. 



occupied by darkness, and filled with foul and turbu- 
lent forms of selfwill and sensuality, of caprice and 
passion, of pride and vanity? Do we not feel that 
that is indeed a merciful necessity which makes us in 
this sense the prisoners of the Lord? Do we not 
rejoice thus to dwell, as it were, in the courts of the 
house of God? Are we not tempted to exclaim, O 
how amiable are thy dwellings, thou Lord of Hosts I — 
to cry out that one day in thy courts is better than a 
thousand in that outer blank where thou art not ? We 
go thither, not that we are driven thither ; our heart 
acknowledges how far the lot thus offered to us is the 
better part. There, the sparrow that hath long flut- 
tered about the house-top, hath at length found a 
home ; the swallow which hath long sailed from land 
to land in fruitless journeyings, hath at length found 
her a nest ; even thy altars, O Lord of Hosts, our King 
and our God ! The unsteady aspirations after some 
permanent lot in life, the wide excursions through the 
realms of thought, appear to find their termination and 
their aim, when the soul has imposed upon it a task and 
office, in which the truth of God is to be habitually 
and perseveringly brought to operate in its bearings 
upon man, keeping him in the course of religious exer- 
cise and virtuous self-government, — and thus drawing 
him constantly nearer to his God. And thus the min- 
ister of God's word and sacraments, feeling himself, like 
St. Paul, a prisoner in the Lord, may, like him too, 
rejoice in his bonds ; and with a glad heart and hope- 
ful spirit, busy himself in the task to which he is bound. 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 



11 



And what is that task ? We have it in the text. 
I, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. This 
is what we have to do ; — to beseech you to walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. We 
have not to urge upon you new and arbitrary rules 
of action, depending upon the mere choice and will 
of ourselves or of any others, or commended by no 
rightness of their own, fitted in no peculiar way to 
your conditions, suggested by no natural train of 
your own views and feelings, sanctioned by no pre- 
vious expectations and declarations, dignified by no 
inherent worthiness ; — we have indeed to urge upon 
you rules of action, but they are of altogether a 
different kind ; they are such as your human nature 
and your social condition demand ; such as your con- 
science cannot but approve ; such as you are already 
bound to obey ; such as are altogether implied in 
your previous history and situation. We call upon 
you, indeed, as St. Paul called upon his disciples, 
to walk in an especial path ; but in order to de- 
termine this path, it is enough that ye walk worthy 
of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Do this, 
and we require no more : think what it is that is 
thus worthy of your vocation, and in that thought 
you will ever find, we trust, sufficient guidance and 
support. Reckon where and to what you have been 
called, and you shall not greatly fall. 

My Christian brethren ! reckon where and to 
what you have been called, Have you any doubt 



12 



SERMON I. 



or perplexity on this subject? Do you not know 
when and how you have been called? No doubt 
you have not been called once only. The voice of 
your calling has probably often sounded in your 
ears, has certainly often been uttered to the air in 
which you breathe. Every Christian man has been 
called again and again; — again and again reminded 
that he has a special vocation, and that he must 
walk worthy of it. Many of these occasions may be 
peculiar and personal; but some are general and 
alike for all of us ; and these, at least, we can easily 
bring to your thoughts, if indeed they are not already 
there. 

You have been called first in your Baptism. That 
was indeed a most important call. You were then 
called out of darkness into light ; — rescued from the 
power of Satan, and placed under the covenanted 
protection of your Almighty Father. You were, each 
of you, then made a child of God and a member of 
Christ ; — a child of that great family whom God 
gathers together on earth, that they may live here 
in faith and love, and finally become his family in 
the eternal heavens ; — a member of Christ's body, 
having your place in that great spiritual frame of 
things by which those who are partakers of the salva- 
tion which he has wrought for us are united with 
him, and drawn in an especial manner to walk in 
paths of holiness and righteousness. Here then is 
indeed a vocation which we would exhort you and 
beseech you that ye walk worthy of. You bear upon 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 



13 



your foreheads the cross, visible to the eyes of angels, 
which marked you the servants and soldiers of Christ : 
Will you then basely give way for any onset of sin ? 
Will you yield yourselves to be the slaves of the 
enemies you have vowed to oppose — the world, the 
flesh, and the devil ? Surely you will not do this ! 
you will behave more worthily, more nobly, more 
truthfully. Still less will you, as some do, basely 
and traitorously join with the enemy; — aid him in 
his wiles and assaults ; — assist him to obtain a victory 
over their unhappy brethren, — they themselves being 
more unhappy, because faithless and false, corrupted 
and corrupters. 

If you have hitherto lived in the cool and tranquil 
atmosphere of a pure and virtuous home, the drops 
of baptismal dew are not yet dry upon your faces. 
Will you quite dissipate them by the burning blush 
of guilty shame, or the flush of intemperance? Far 
be this from you ! Let them long remain with 
you, and, form, as it were, a halo round your heads, 
within which no fierce or unholy spirit, no impure or 
turbulent thoughts, may ever penetrate. The voice 
of your call still echoes among the piers and arches of 
some ancient edifice ; — still vibrates in the air which 
fills some temple of the living God. "Wilt thou 
obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, 
and walk in the same all the days of thy life?" — 
" I will." — This was the call, this was the solemn 
dialogue between heaven and earth, between God 
and man, which sounded over your infant head, and 



14 



SERMON I. 



in which your moral and spiritual condition was in- 
volved. In virtue of the call thus assented to on 
your part it was, that you were received by adoption 
as the child of God, that you have ever since shared 
in the privileges and advantages of his Church ; that 
you have been welcomed as a brother by all Christian 
men, — taught and encouraged to pray to God for 
pardon for your sins, for strength against temptation, 
for the continual confirmation and final realization 
of your eternal hopes. 

Surely, then, we are not now uttering vain and 
powerless words, when we beseech you to bear in 
mind all that has thus been done for you;— to listen 
to these still lingering echoes of your first dedica- 
tion to God ; to gather encouragement and comfort 
from the same ; to resolve, at their monition, to walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. 

But this is not the only vocation that you have 
received. The voice of your call has sounded again 
and more recently. You have taken upon yourselves, 
most of you at least, the vows which were thus made 
in your name. You have retraced the cross upon 
your foreheads ; you have sought fresh strength and 
health for your spirits, by entering again into the 
refreshing dewy air of your baptismal font ; you have 
not only remembered the words of the service which 
was then used for you, but you have again repeated 
the vow, with a voice of your own. The dialogue 
between the spiritual and the mortal world is re- 
sumed : " Do ye here, in the presence of God and of 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 



15 



this Congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow 
that was made in your name at your Baptism ; ratify- 
ing and confirming the same in your own persons^ 
and acknowledging yourselves bound to believe, and 
to do, all those things which your Godfathers and 
Godmothers then undertook for you V — " I do." — The 
sacred walls, along which the service uttered for you 
at the font was perhaps sinking into an inaudible 
murmur, are again roused into a willing echo, and 
reverberate your declaration aloud, as if rejoicing in 
the glad sounds, and delighted with the repetition of 
your holy purpose. Here again is a call, and well 
indeed may we exhort you to walk worthily of it : — 
to verify an utterance so mighty: to fulfil a vow 
so solemn. And we trust, we believe, with regard to 
you, my Christian brethren, that those were not idle 
words, corresponding to no movement of your own 
minds : — that this was not an empty formality, repre- 
senting nothing that passed within your own breasts. 
We believe that this vow, thus at this period of your 
lives demanded of you by the Church, is but the 
expression of a genuine purpose of your souls, ear- 
nestly conceived and resolutely entertained. You 
have looked forwards with the hopeful and generous 
spirit of youth ; you have seen the field of human life 
opening before you; you have seen that on the one 
hand was the path of good and right, of the love 
of God and man, of high aims and pure motives, and 
on the other, the way of sensuality, worldliness, indif- 
ference, malice. You have resolved to choose the 



16 



SERMON I. 



better part. You have determined that you would 
serve God and not mammon ; — that you would seek 
the pleasures of the mind and the heart, and not 
of the body and the senses ; — that you would so do 
and speak and think, that you might be beloved 
of God and of man. The expressions of your vow 
of Confirmation came as a natural and fitting utter- 
ance of the thoughts you had then conceived ; cloth- 
ing them in a holier form ; giving them a higher 
sanction ; offering to you a clearer promise of their 
reality. And we have now no other desire than that 
you should walk worthily of the resolutions which 
you then made ; — that you should fulfil the designs 
which you then formed ; — that you should constantly 
press on towards the aims on which you then fixed 
your eyes. Do this, and you shall indeed live. Your 
life shall have a purpose, a value, an importance 
which no course of amusement, of pleasure, of selfish- 
ness, can give to it. Do this; and you shall have, 
helping you on your course, all the aids and supports 
which God has provided for those that seek him. 
You shall have here the happy influence of settled 
institutions and rules, guides and teachers, encourage- 
ments and monitions, constantly operating, constantly 
directing and determining, yet unfelt as constraints by 
those who lend themselves genially to their sway. 
Among these, you shall have, in this ourTamily, as in 
all other families of pious and soberminded men, the 
blessed influence of daily prayer, offering itself with 
the dawn of every day, as if to harmonize your 



i 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 17 

earliest thoughts with its times so solemn, and yet 
so glad, so soothing, and yet so elevating. Let this 
be a part of your daily walk ; and then you will, we 
trust, find it become more and more easy to make the 
other parts of your day correspond to such a begin- 
ning ; and thus, day by day, and week by week, walk 
worthily of the vocation wherewith you are called. 

There is one other way in which your vocation 
is shewn, which we cannot now overlook, since the 
token of it is now before our bodily eyes: there is one 
other call which God makes to you, which will in a 
few moments sound in your bodily ears. The token 
is the Table of the Lord : the call is the invitation to 
partake of his Communion. " Draw near with faith, 
and take this holy sacrament to your comfort ;" — 
these are the words of solemn exhortation and en- 
couragement with which you are now addressed. 
Here is indeed a most thrilling call. It is a call to 
seek a more intimate union with Him, the great Head 
of our Christian body; and through this union, a share 
in the death to sin and the birth to righteousness 
which his members here undergo. It is a call to drink 
in, with the sacred elements which he blessed and 
declared to be his body and blood, a larger supply of 
his Holy Spirit, to purify our hearts, to guide our 
wills, to aid us against temptation, to fix our thoughts 
on things above. This is our call : and happy in- 
deed are we, if we can walk worthily of the vocation 
wherewith we are thus called. We have, put into 
our mouths by the service, words which express the 
w. c. s. C 



18 SERMON X. 

spirit in which we are to strive to do this. We are 
to dedicate to God and to his service all our thoughts 
and all our powers. We are "to offer and present 
to him ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a rea- 
sonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto him." We are 
" members incorporate in the mystical body of Christ, 
which is the blessed company of all faithful people," 
and we beseech our heavenly Father to assist us with 
His grace, that we may continue in that fellowship, 
and do all such good works as He has prepared for 
us to walk in. 

In this purpose, in this belief, in this hope, let us 
go forth to our various tasks. In this spirit let us 
enter upon the various offices of duty and love, of 
obedience and superintendence which belong to us 
in our position here : in this spirit let us go through 
the business of the world, and so deal with things 
temporal, that finally we fail not of things eternal. 
We have already, in earlier parts of our lives, had 
other calls from God through the ministrations of his 
Church ; perhaps we have neglected or forgotten 
them ; perhaps we have not walked worthy of them. 
If this be so, let it be so no more. Here again, we 
have, more plainly than ever, his gracious call. Once 
more his voice of invitation rings in our ears. Let 
this call be made effectual to us. Let this epoch be 
the end of youthful folly and carelessness — let us 
begin to be men. Let us from this time resolve, 
and unceasingly labour, unshrinkingly persevere, in- 
flexibly resist temptation. Let us be such persons, 



THE CHRISTIAN VOCATION. 19 

as in the brightest and loftiest moods of past hope 
and anticipation we have imagined that we ought 
to be and would be. Let us be more ; — such as be- 
comes those who are of the blessed company of all 
faithful people, by whom the work of God is carried 
on during time ; by whom the praises of God will be 
sung through eternity : — such men as those must be 
who are constantly receiving, by the gracious favour 
of Christ, by their union with him, by his holy ordi- 
nances, by the spiritual food on which he feeds them, 
fresh assurances of his Redeeming Love, fresh mea- 
sures of his Sanctifying Spirit. Our call is to walk 
with saints and angels ; to share in the work which 
God has been working from the beginning, and will 
work to the end ; to fulfil the petition that he has 
taught us, that his kingdom may come, and that his 
will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our 
call is to raise our souls and hearts towards Him 
during our progress here, that they may dwell with 
Him in heaven hereafter, as their fitting home, their 
natural resting-place. This it is to which we have 
often been called before, but if never before, now, 
clearly, plainly, emphatically, earnestly, solemnly. 
This is your call: this is ours. Let us then carry 
hence with us, carry through our lives, as the thought 
which is to animate our hopes, to arm us against 
temptation, to elevate us from one stage of purity 
and charity and heavenly-mindedness to another, this 
resolution and desire, — through God's help, to walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. 

C2 



SERMON II 



(1842. Lent Term.) 



Matthew XVI. 26. 

For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and 
lose his own soul f Or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul ? 

TITE who habitually meet together within these 
™ sacred walls are bound to each other by many 
ties of common occupations and objects, forms and 
institutions. We come together to these long-fre- 
quented haunts of study from every corner of the 
land, and even from every quarter of the globe, with 
the purpose — in all of us, I trust, a most sincere 
and earnest purpose, — of enriching and elevating 
our minds by the acquisition of Knowledge, by the 
influence of Order, and by intercourse with the 
thoughtful and the good. We are occupied in the 
habitual contemplation of those products of man's 
mind which have most delighted the Imagination 
and satisfied the Reason of all ages. We form com- 
panionships and friendships, which, belonging to the 
time when our minds are most vigorously appro- 



THE SOUL. 



21 



priating to themselves all that is congenial in lite- 
rature or in society, are bound up in our inner being ; 
fastened upon us by a thousand threads of pleasant 
memories and lively interests, and thus cling to our 
hearts through life, as something which we could 
least of all things consent to lose. Literature and 
Science, Fancy and Argument, Sympathy and Emu- 
lation, all tend to draw us to one another ; and make 
us all, I trust, rejoice in the Institution to which we 
owe it that we are thus come together. 

But while we are thus drawn together by that 
which refines and elevates the mind, by the love of 
the True and the Beautiful, by high aims and fervid 
hopes; how imperfect must be our union, how in- 
congruous our condition, if we have no common care 
and interest in that which most thoroughly purifies 
the mind, that which most truly is The True, that 
which alone can justly be spoken of as a worthy 
aim of Ambition, a sufficient resting-place for Hope ! 
How ill do we follow out the true purport of our 
association here, if we do not make it a means of 
seeking purification in religion, beauty in holiness, 
Truth in God, and Hope in Heaven ! If our assem- 
blage within the same precincts have not a religious 
impress, how ill must it needs represent the lofty 
purposes which are implied in the very notion of 
cultivating and elevating the mind ! How empty must 
be our teaching, if it forget that we are God's ser- 
vants ; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ ! How 
poor and scanty our ordinances, if they do not incite 



22 



SERMON II. 



us to be his worshippers; — if they do not give us 
the offer of the means of union with Him, and through 
Him with each other ! 

But in fact, our condition is not thus maimed and 
defective ; our union is not thus incomplete ; our 
ordinances are not thus scant and niggardly. In 
addition to all that the Intellect and the Imagination 
may most richly feed upon, we have, provided for us, 
that food which the religious heart of man requires, 
and without which he must ever feel craving and 
unsatisfied ; until the torpor of apathy or the death 
of unbelief is engendered by the lack of spiritual 
nutriment. We are invited to a daily approach to the 
footstool of our Almighty Father in this his house ; 
we are summoned to lend our voices to the daily utter- 
ances of his universal Church ; — to lift up our hearts 
with the hearts of the faithful in every part of the 
globe. Sursum corda! It is not the fault of the 
founders of our commonwealth, or of the institutions 
which they have left for us to administer, if this cry be 
not perpetually sounding in our ears. Before the stir 
of daily life has disturbed the courts of our house, we 
hear the air made to vibrate with the sounds which 
summon us to the office of united prayer. We are 
called upon to confess our sins, to praise the God of our 
salvation in the language of the Royal Psalmist, and to 
beseech Him who has safely brought us to the begin- 
ning of the day to defend us in the same with his 
mighty power, to keep us from all danger and from all 
sin. Surely we must be unworthy of our share in the 



THE SOUL. 



23 



privileges of the House thus ordained by wise and godly 
men of old, if our minds are averse to this invitation, 
if our ears are dull in catching this sound, if our 
voices are mute when this united prayer is uttered, if 
our hearts are cold and unraised when those of our 
brethren are lifted to the throne of grace. Be this far 
from us — from all of us ! Let us all, the younger and 
the older, those who have longest dwelt here and 
those who have latest arrived, obey willingly the 
admonition, — rather, accept gladly the privilege, — 
which is thus offered to us, and begin our days with 
the blessing of pious ordinances, with the comfort of 
God's aid and favour invoked in his house of prayer. 

But besides this daily worship, our institutions 
provide for a more special supplication to God, a 
more solemn dedication of ourselves to him, at certain 
stated intervals. After each of the pauses in our 
occupations here which divide the year into its sea- 
sons, we are directed to meet together at the Table of 
the Lord according to his gracious command, and 
there to seek his help in forming and keeping good 
resolutions, by which we may approach to a nearer 
and nearer communion with him. Each stage of our 
progress through our annual round of employments 
here is thus to be sanctified and dignified by the 
most solemn office of religion ; — to be enriched with 
the most precious of the ordinances which Christ 
bequeathed to his Church. And thus we may, if we 
will, measure our advance through this our course of 
discipline by the number of our visits to His table ; 



24 



SERMON II. 



by the frequency of our participation in His great 
festival. In our pilgrimage here, more favoured than 
the Israelites in theirs, we are permitted at every 
resting-place, not only to eat angels' food, but to feed 
upon that more precious manna by which, as we 
trust, our bodies and souls are preserved even to 
everlasting life. May God bless to us on this present 
occasion the means of his grace which he has thus 
provided for us ! — provided for us, and for all in all 
ages by this blessed ordinance at its first institution ; 
and provided for us who are now here more especi- 
ally, by those appointments of godly men by which 
this ordinance has been handed down to our times, 
and especially enjoined upon us by our founders and 
lawgivers. 

But our usages further direct, that when we thus 
come together to such a union with Christ through 
this his sacred ordinance, our meeting should be at- 
tended by a word of exhortation delivered by him 
whom God's Providence has called to sit in the chief 
place among you. It is no light matter for any one 
to have thus to find words which may, if possible, im- 
press your most solemn thoughts upon you still more 
solemnly ; which may respond to the good and holy 
purposes with which, we doubt not, you come here ; 
and may fall in, not all too meanly and dissonantly, 
with the language which on this great occasion is 
used by our venerated mother the Church. We must, 
if it may be, deliver nothing which may jar with the 
good thoughts and holy desires which we trust to 



THE SOUL. 



25 



carry hence, after praying that God will cleanse our 
hearts by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit. And it 
would by no means fill the measure of the reasonable 
wishes of God's servants and worshippers if we were 
on such occasions to employ your minds with doc- 
trines of mere human philosophy, however just and 
true. The gratification of the Fancy alone, or even 
the satisfaction of the Reason, if the work were to 
end there, would be a very insufficient accompaniment 
to the deep and touching thoughts which rise upon 
pious minds at such assemblies as this ; and may God, 
in his great mercy and power, pardon the sins, and 
supply the deficiencies, and elevate and purify the 
thoughts, of your Preacher; and make him so to 
speak to you, whatever be the matter spoken of, that 
your hearts may be drawn towards God and towards 
each Dther, and that all that is said may tend to 
make us a brotherhood fearing God, and zealously 
serving Him here, and travelling on together to a 
more worthy service of Him through the ages that 
shall commence, when all human institutions shall 
have rolled away. 

But though the preacher thus must not apply 
himself to the reason alone, he must never forget, in 
addressing any Christian congregation, that they are 
reasonable creatures, and that nothing can have a steady 
and abiding place in their minds, except that which 
is consistent with their reason, and true according to 
the best apprehension which they can obtain of truth. 
And if we are to bear this in mind in every congrega- 



26 



SERMON II. 



tion, least of all can we be allowed to forget it here, 
among men who are especially giving themselves, as 
you and we are doing, or have done, or at least intend 
to do, to the best cultivation of their intellectual 
faculties, to the discovery and contemplation of truth. 
We are here engaged in acquainting ourselves with 
demonstration and philosophy, the most rigorous ex- 
amples of reasoning, and the most profound reasons of 
things ; and we shall but ill edify each other, if while 
we do this with regard to other matters, we resign 
religion to the domain of illogical reasonings and un- 
philosophical reasons. The minds of men, stimulated 
and cultivated as men's minds are here, will not be 
content without asking how the things can be, of which 
they are told. We naturally wish to do as we are 
expressly commanded to do, — -to examine all things, 
and hold fast that which is good : — to be able to render 
a reason for the faith that is in us. And accordingly, 
learned and pious men, filled with the lore which 
ought to prevail in seats of learning like these, have 
often, from such retreats, given to the world a scru- 
tinizing examination of many things, with a lucid 
exposition of that which is good. They have ren- 
dered most clear and convincing reasons for the faith 
that was in them, and which they taught to their 
followers. By their labours the difficulties of Divine 
as well as of human knowledge have been removed, 
and the Truth of God has been brought into dis- 
tinguishable harmony with the sense for Truth which 
God has given to man. 



THE SOUL. 



27 



But if we may be called upon to render a reason 
for the faith which is in us, still more may we be 
justly expected to render a reason for the accessaries 
and vehicles of that faith; — for the ordinances by 
which it is preserved and expressed, transmitted and 
communicated. These ordinances, no less than the 
faith itself, must have their reasons why they are 
what they are ; and even a reason why there should 
be ordinances at all To inquire into such matters, 
in a clue spirit of reverence and modesty, with a due 
comprehensiveness of view and preparation of mind, 
is an employment in no way beyond the limits of our 
Christian freedom ; rather say, is a part of the duty 
of Christians of enlightened minds and inquiring 
habits. If it be no disparagement to the supreme 
law of man's being, to shew how it is written in 
men's hearts, as well as in the Book of God, it is no 
slighting of Divine ordinances to show, that by the 
very nature of man, his spirit must be upheld and 
elevated by such means. If it be allowable to show 
that by the very constitution of the world, we are led 
to look for a revelation from God and a provision 
by Him for man's salvation, it may be permitted us 
also to endeavour to shew that the same constitution 
of the world cannot be conceived without a Church 
of God, to which are committed the records of reve- 
lation and the means and symbols of salvation. If 
we may inquire into the influence of the Divine Law 
upon human law, and try to discern clearly the work 
which the revealed will of God has to perform in its 



28 



SERMON II. 



operation upon human society ; we may look also 
with the same deep interest, at the sanctions of the 
Divine Law which human law may fitly tender to it 
as Divine ; and may examine what is the just place 
of the Church in the scheme of human society. 
These are large subjects, to be approached with hu- 
mility, and touched with reverent care; but so ap- 
proached and so touched, they belong to us, and are 
subjects on which it is of no small moment that we 
should, if possible, discover and cleave to that doc- 
trine which is true and good. If we find that the 
Church of God has its foundations even deeper and 
wider than we might at first apprehend, — in man's 
nature as well as in God's word ; — if it appear that 
the ordinances of religion are the genuine utterances 
of that voice of consolation and hope which man's 
spirit cannot bear to want ; — we shall turn with in- 
creased earnestness and devotion from the reasons 
of religion to religion itself, from human thoughts to 
Divine aspirations, from the desk of the preacher to 
the Table of the Lord. 

On the present occasion, however, we can only 
speak in the most brief and imperfect manner of 
the matter to which I have ventured to call your 
thoughts. The whole subject is, as I have said, one of 
great extent and of various bearings : but I must now 
content myself with a single remark, which being of 
a very general kind, may serve as a first step in our 
consideration of the subject. On some future occa- 
sion, with the permission and blessing of our Divine 



THE SOUL. 



29 



Master, we may pursue the subject further, and en- 
deavour to trace into more special consequences 
such principles as reason and scripture combine in 
commending to our conviction, 

I have already intimated that a part of my pur- 
pose will be, to make it appear to you what is the 
connexion between the spiritual and the secular ele- 
ments in man's condition ; what is the relation of 
the Divine and the human sanctions of goodness and 
rectitude ; how — as the nature of man cannot permit 
him to exist without Law and the forms of Law, and 
is then only truly exhibited when just Laws are 
justly administered, — so the nature of man in a 
higher sense is then only truly manifested when Re- 
ligion, and when the true Religion, is acknowledged 
as his guide and support, and is duly expressed and 
recognized in the forms and institutions of human life. 

The remark which at present I wish to bring- 
before your notice, in reference to this subject, is one 
which respects the different light in which Law and 
Religion, Human Jurisprudence and Divine Provi- 
dence, look upon the creature, man, who is the sub- 
ject of both of them. The due apprehension of this 
difference will give us a starting point for our thoughts : 
and the limits of our time warn me to express this 
difference as briefly and pointedly as I can. 

Human Law and that Natural Justice which is the 
proper foundation of Human Law, considers man as 
a Person. The result of a general fitness is vested 
in an individual as a special property of his. What 



30 



SERMON II. 



a universal rectitude assigns him, is his Right. What 
it is right that he should have becomes his Right. 
The quality, the general attribute of actions becomes 
an abstract thing, a special possession of a person. 
Natural Law is the doctrine of Rights and Obligations ; 
and this doctrine has its rise in the consideration 
of the results of general rectitude, vested in Persons. 
The consideration of man as a Person, as a creature 
that can have Rights, and towards whom his fellow- 
men may have Obligations, is the very basis of all 
human Jurisprudence, — the fundamental thought of 
all Rules and Systems of natural Law and Justice. 

I may seem to be leading you into contemplations 
too abstruse for the occasion, yet I trust it is not 
so ; and in this region I shall not tarry. I only ask 
this one question : if Law considers man as a Person, 
in what other light does Religion consider him, which 
gives the true aspect to the domains of these two 
Mistresses of man's being ? If Law deals with Rights 
and Obligations, and contemplates them as the attri- 
butes of a Person, Religion has to do with Duties and 
Purposes of Duty, and to what does she ascribe them ? 
Is Religion content with taking the same view of man 
as that which Law takes? In her eyes, is rightness 
merely a possession of some special man ? is the duty 
of recognizing it merely an obligation to him f Is it 
enough if our purposes are so governed that we 
do not trespass upon the Rights of others, that we 
do not neglect our Obligations to them? Are the 
state and preparation of man's inward being matters 



THE SOUL. 



31 



of no consequence, provided we conform to Human 
Laws ? Plainly all this is utterly insufficient, in those 
who recognize Religion as their guide and teacher. 
Her demands go much further than this. She requires 
us to do what is right in itself, even if no one claim 
it as Ms Right. She requires us to perform our 
duties, as well as to discharge our obligations. She 
insists upon commanding our intentions as well as our 
actions ; and not only so, but all that tends to make 
our intentions what they ought, or what they ought 
not to be. She claims to regulate the very thoughts 
of our hearts, and the imaginations of our minds. 
She has her own scheme for directing all that forms 
the character, and prepares us to do and to be what 
life and death require of us. Within her jurisdiction 
is all which, through any of our faculties, influences 
our inward being. All that through the operation of 
external objects, or the working of our own thoughts 
and feelings, from the first dawn of infant conscious- 
ness to the last scene of human existence, makes us 
what we are — all this is her world : in this she seeks, 
she claims to rule. It is not enough for her to con- 
sider man as Law considers him ; in her eyes he is 
much more. Her view is far deeper, wider, loftier, 
more penetrating, more long-sighted. And this dif- 
erence we may fitly express by saying, that while 
Law considers man as a Person, Religion contem- 
plates him as a being endowed with a Soul. For 
the Soul is apprehended as that conscious principle, 
that deep-seated unity in our nature, in which all our 



32 



SERMON II. 



faculties and powers have their root, and from which 
they draw their life. In the Soul it is, that all those 
influences operate by which from infancy to man- 
hood and from manhood to age, the character is 
formed, the will directed, the heart raised or debased, 
polluted or purified : and the Soul it is, in which 
Religion recognizes an element capable of eternal 
life, and thus, and thus alone, the fit subject for her 
government, the worthy disciple of her teaching, the 
destined heir of her riches. 

With this single remark upon the relative domains 
of Law and Religion, I will here close the train of 
thought which I have now to offer to you : yet before 
I do so, let me for a moment endeavour to combine 
with what has been said a reflection which may im- 
press its import upon our consciences as well as upon 
our memories. We appear to have made but little 
advance in the discernment of truth, by the distinc- 
tion at which we have arrived, and so indeed it is: 
and we must combine several such truths as this, 
before we can frame a body of sound doctrine, from 
which we can draw consequences such as we are 
seeking. But yet even what has been said suggests 
a ready but most momentous reflection. Is Religion 
indeed the guide who especially and alone treats man 
as a creature endowed with a soul ? Of what immea- 
surable consequence and value then must her guidance 
be ! For, without further scrutinizing all that is im- 
plied in the terms which we have used, in whose mind 
does there not arise the reflection so solemnly expressed 



THE SOUL. 



33 



in the text? — What is a man profited, if he gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a 
man give in exchange for Ms soul f That element of 
our being in which are seated the principles of our 
moral and spiritual nature, the issues of life and 
death, the seed of a blessed or of an unblest immor- 
tality, is, we know, capable of being depraved or cor- 
rupted ; — capable of having its desires polluted, its 
faculties perverted, its glorious prospects turned to 
utter darkness. If this happen to us, how vain, how 
worthless is all that we may possess of apparent 
wealth ; — all that we may achieve of seeming good or 
great ! If our souls are contracting stains of vice, 
and becoming torpid to the influence of pure and 
holy thoughts, how little are we profited by all the 
gain which we may acquire in the regions of Intellect 
and Fancy, in the paths of worldly distinction and 
advancement. Whatever it be that is given a man 
in exchange for his soul, — wealth and power, know- 
ledge, fame, mirth and pleasure, or the desires of his 
heart — what doth it profit him ! How worthless, how 
much worse than nothing is all this ! If it were all 
that the world contains, which were thus given him, 
it is but so much of weight, hung round him to drag 
him down to the bottomless pit. The thought that 
this may be so, may well make us turn to the power 
by which alone the soul can be rescued from such 
perils; — can be purified, and raised, led onwards, 
and upwards, in the true path of its eternal desti- 
nation. As there is for the soul a dire possibility of 
w. c. s. D 



34 



SERMON II. 



ruin, so there is also, within the domain of Religion, 
a provision of means and aids by which its ruin may 
be averted. Religion has hopes and consolations 
which she sets before the soul ; — a doctrine of recon- 
ciliation to God which she is commanded to preach ; 
— a spirit of grace which she is authorized to promise. 
She has also symbols and ordinances by which these 
hopes and promises, this administration of recon- 
ciliation and grace are visibly expressed to us, and 
presented to our bodily senses. Such symbols are 
now before us. We are invited to partake of them ; 
to seek in them new supplies of hope and trust, — 
refreshing draughts from the fountain of grace. To 
this invitation let us now give ourselves. Let us seek 
in the ordinances in which we are about to share, 
that which may be for our souls' health: — the re- 
moval of all bad thoughts and evil desires : — the 
confirmation of all good purposes : — a deeper spirit 
of good-will to men ; — a nearer union with God. 
Whatever we may have been hitherto, let us be, from 
this time, as men who are dead to sin and alive only 
to righteousness. Whatever stains we may have con- 
tracted, let us fly to the atoning and purifying dis- 
pensation which God has given ; and seek, in that, 
pardon for the past and the sanctification of our 
future lives. To all is the invitation ; to all the 
promise. You may have wandered, but God still 
beckons you back ; you may have been perverse and 
rebellious, but he is still longsuffering and merciful. 
You may have been long deaf to his call, but his 



THE SOUL. 



35 



voice still sounds in you ears. If it begin in reproach 
and condemnation, it is still ready to close with en- 
couragement and blessing, when you approach Him. 
His accents are still such as these — "Ye were as 
sheep going astray, but are now returned to the 
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls," To Him, then, 
the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, let us turn in 
faith and prayer, and accept with gratitude the means 
of grace and hopes of glory which He has provided 
for us. 



D2 



SERMON III. 



(1842. Easter Term.) 



Proverbs XV. 3. 

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil 
and the good. 

/~\NCE more we are called together by the usages 
"of the House in which we sojourn, to join in the 
most solemn ordinances of the Church of God. Once 
more we are summoned to approach the Table of the 
Lord, and to seek, in the provision there made for us, 
refreshment and purification and strength for our 
souls. Once more we are called upon to hear, and 
to deliver, the word of exhortation with which, as 
our customs direct, this our meeting is accompanied. 
Once more we come together to feel, I trust, more 
especially, that we are all members of one family; 
that it is our business, our happiness, to seek a closer 
union with Christ our Head, and through Him with 
each other , — a larger share in the blessed influences 
of that Holy Spirit who takes up his abode in the 
hearts of God's true servants, and, through his aid, 
the way to a truer service, a more heavenly life upon 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



37 



earth, a surer and nearer prospect of a heavenly life 
in heaven. Again we are called to these offices and 
exertions, these hopes and desires, these privileges 
and benefits. Again we meet together as Christ's 
flock, the people of his hand, the sheep of his pas- 
ture. — May his blessing be upon us, directing and 
hallowing the office in which we are engaged; im- 
pressing its full import on every heart; — making it 
work for good to each of us ; — making it strengthen 
us in all goodness, and arm us against all evil 
thoughts and outward trials; — making it a means to 
help us forward in our progress towards our eternal 
home in the house of our Father. We have, all of 
us, his business to do, in some shape or other. We 
have, each of us, our appointed task in this life ; and 
our true happiness, our only real comfort, consists 
in doing it with all our heart and with all our mind, 
with all our soul and with all our strength. But, 
for this end, we often need to have our hearts puri- 
fied, our minds enlightened, our souls elevated, and 
our strength supported, by a power greater than our 
own. We need that God's grace should go before 
and follow us; — that he should put into our hearts 
good desires, and bring the same to good effect ; that 
he should show us the way in which we ought to go, 
and uphold us from falling while we pursue it. And 
we may nowhere look for this light and strength, 
this purifying and elevating influence, with more trust 
and confidence, than in the blessed ordinances which 
He himself has appointed: — in the assembly of his 



38 



SERMON III. 



servants met together for the purposes of prayer and 
praise; — in the sacraments which He himself has 
instituted to bring his disciples into a nearer union 
with them. May these ordinances, then, be thus 
blessed in their efficacy to us ; — hallowing and raising 
our thoughts while we partake of them, and spread- 
ing their sanctifying influence also over the inter- 
mediate portions of our lives 1 

Since we assembled here for this sacred purpose, 
on the last occasion similar to the present, our em- 
ployments have, with most of us, run their accus- 
tomed course. We have been engaged, it may be, 
in the interpretation of ancient authors, or in the 
demonstration of abstract truths ; in tracing the man- 
ner in which all things are governed by number and 
weight and measure, or in contemplating the fair 
images, and listening to the sweet strains, which are 
offered to us by the poets of the Greeks and Romans. 
These are employments, efficacious beyond all others 
in giving to the mind that steadiness and justness of 
apprehension which the perfection of the human 
faculties requires. A thorough acquaintance with 
such studies can, and that alone can, make us believe 
in, and know, and love, that which is True in specu- 
lation and in taste. It is in this view that we 
recommend to you these studies. Their primary and 
direct object is this culture of the mind. And for 
this purpose they are, we trust, sufficiently recom- 
mended to your notice, by the advice and exhorta- 
tions of those under whose care you are here placed ; 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



39 



by your own love of what is beautiful and true, 
refined and profound ; and by the marks of our ap- 
proval, which we readily and gladly bestow, where 
we see that such studies have been pursued in a 
zealous and thoughtful spirit. We trust, too, that 
the provisions made by our institutions for your 
common instruction, in the portions of literature and 
philosophy thus pressed upon your attention, are so 
ample and so efficacious, that they may well supply 
all the assistance which you need from teachers and 
advisers; may suffice to direct the employment of 
your hours of private study, and to remove ought of 
difficulty and obscurity and doubt which your own 
labour and thought cannot remove. We trust, too, 
that you habitually have recourse to the aids and 
appliances thus provided ; and we are well persuaded 
that your studies of ancient literature, and of uni- 
versal truths, thus pursued, in common with your 
fellow-students, and under the eyes of those who are 
the instructors and directors of successive generations 
of the sons of this family, will give you a mutual 
understanding of what is passing in the minds of each 
other on such subjects, a common feeling of the 
tastes and thoughts of the world of cultivated men ; 
impressions which are more truly culture and dis- 
cipline than any results of mere solitary study can 
be. And thus for the mere temporal ends of hu- 
man learning, we trust, that means have been pro- 
vided, — not unsuited to our position and to yours — 
of raising and enlarging your views of the objects at 



40 



SERMON III. 



which you ought to aim, and of helping you onwards 
in your progress towards them. 

But still— supposing all this to be as amply done 
as our care or your zeal can devise — still there remains 
much behind ; still, there are other objects and pur- 
poses of your studies, which we can by no means be 
willing that you should neglect or miss : — still, even 
that which we commonly consider as mere human 
literature, has a more grave and solemn aspect which 
we would not have you overlook. We talk indeed of 
things temporal, as distinguished from things spiritual ; 
we speak of what is secular in literature, as separate 
from what is sacred ; and for many purposes the dis- 
tinction is just and important. But when we consider 
man as not merely endowed with faculties for his own 
amusement and gratification; — as not merely the 
gifted possessor of certain wonderfully constructed 
and subtle powers, — Reason and Imagination, Memory 
and Invention, — but as responsible for the use which 
he makes of these exquisite instruments; — as not 
merely enjoying and exercising their powers, but as 
having a Living Soul, in which these wonderful 
faculties have their roots; — in which they are sub- 
ject to the influence of each other and of all that in 
any way affects man's inner being; — in which too 
by their mutual influence, and by the discipline to 
which they are subjected, they co-operate in no small 
degree in shaping the soul itself and determining its 
character, and therefore its eternal destiny ; — when we 
thus consider man, what is there then which we can 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



41 



justly call entirely temporal and secular? — what is 
there, which may not have a powerful efficacy in 
determining his spiritual condition, and thence, in 
deciding his final lot, and the place which will be 
assigned him by the Supreme and Everlasting Governor 
of the world ? What is there, even in exercise of his 
thoughts upon works of Fancy or Reason, which may 
not have to do with consequences like these, since 
such occupations may be made to tend to narrow or 
to enlarge the mind ; to raise or to degrade our views 
of the ends of life ; to purify or to pollute the imagin- 
ation ; to give us true or false opinions of the faculties 
and nature of man, and of the government of the 
world by the Lord of all, whose work man is. It 
may be well — doubtless it is well — not to mingle, in 
a spirit of levity and boldness — things sacred with 
things profane. It may be well, in the common 
course of our studies, to pursue human learning 
merely as human learning, and not to seek, in the 
play of Fancy or in the subtle workings of mere 
Intellect, any fit manifestation of man's eternal desti- 
nation, and of the Divine guidance by which he is 
made aware of it. Yet still, it may be well also, 
from time to time to call back into our minds those 
higher and deeper thoughts of the real destiny of 
man, the true purpose of his faculties. It may shed 
a sacredness, even over our profane studies, to recol- 
lect that he is a creature invested with those mar- 
vellous powers for great and worthy ends ; — acting 
under the rule of a wise and gracious Governor, 



42 



SERMON III. 



and directed, by many indications, through every age 
of the world, and every dispensation, to a horror of 
sin, and a trust and submission towards his supreme 
Ruler and Judge. 

Doubtless we who live in the full radiance of the 
light of revelation which was sent to lighten the Gen- 
tiles, have a view of our position which, compared 
with the brightest glimpses obtained by the heathen, 
not so favoured, is as the light of the day compared 
with the night. We know where it is that we are to 
seek for remission of sins, and in whom we have 
trusted. The brightest ages of the genius of Greece, 
which have produced those harmonious strains of poe- 
try, those lofty philosophical thoughts, on which we still 
dwell with delight, can tell us but little of the true 
way by which we are to seek to purify our own nature, 
and propitiate the Divine Favour. To such deep and 
solemn questions, the answers which they return are 
dim and vague ; and the conscience-stricken and 
anxious soul gladly turns from them to a clearer 
teaching and a surer help. But yet the penetrating 
guesses of their philosophy, and even the deep-seated 
convictions and dark traditions which they clothed in 
the garb of poetry — to their minds the most solemn 
and dignified of all vestures in which man's thoughts 
can appear — these are not unworthy of our considera- 
tion, even in our gravest moods. For if they do not 
answer the mighty questions which press upon man's 
spirit, they at least show us what the questions are : 
they tell us what human nature wants and demands, 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



43 



as consolation and trust, even if they do not disclose 
to us where these may be found ; — by pointing out to 
us in what imaginations of his own, man seeks for 
peace and hope under the sense of pollution and cala- 
mity, they make us better perceive the wisdom of 
God, whose dispensation supplies the craving which 
those imaginations only made more manifest and 
painful. 

Since, as I have said, we may most fitly seek, in 
these more sacred and solemn occasions of our as- 
sembling, to lay hold on thoughts which may give a 
sacredness and solemnity to our intermediate employ- 
ments ; let it not seem strange to you, if I attempt 
further to illustrate what I have said, by an instance, 
which, to the minds of many of you, especially of 
those the most recently come among us, cannot be 
unfamiliar. 

When you have brought before you, by the most 
grave and dignified of the Greek poets, an old man % 
thrust down from the highest position of human life 
by terrible, yet hardly voluntary crimes, wandering in 
exile and poverty, and with a broken spirit willingly 
accepting death, if death only come as the Divine will 
directs, we perceive how entirely human nature feels 
itself to be destitute of any means of finding, in its 
own energies, renovation and purification, when once 
polluted by foul transgression. And when, as this 
wise Athenian brings the scene before us, the exile 

* The CEdipus Coloneus of Sophocles. 



44 



SERMON III. 



finds his way to a spot sacred to the Deities, who, 
with Venerable and Gracious for their names, preside 
over Retribution ; and when he is declared to be 
thence removed from among living men by a super- 
natural visitation ; we surely see an acknowledgment, 
that that which alone can soothe and support the 
human soul, disturbed and affrighted at the sight of 
the dreadful crimes and calamities to which human 
life is subject, is the thought of a superintending 
Providence, which holds in its hands the issues of life 
and death, and in which we must repose our trust in 
all the agitations of our minds. Those who were 
called the All-seeing Gracious Ones in the language 
of the Athenian, and who, as he says, are called by 
other names in other places, we may, without irrever- 
ence say, are but the images of a higher reality, the 
shadows of an eternal substance. And perhaps this 
impressive truth was actually delivered, with the 
authority of more than human wisdom, on the very 
spot to which it refers. Perhaps the place, thick 
planted with the laurel and the olive and the vine, 
and where the birds filled the recesses of the grove 
with their sweet voices, so that it was manifestly con- 
secrate to some deity*, was, after a few generations of 
men, visited by him who waited a while at Athens, 
and whose spirit was stirred within him, when he saw 
the city wholly given to idolatry^. Perhaps here too, 
when he saw one narrow enclosure fixed upon as the 



* CEdipus Coloneus, v. 16. 



t Acts xvii. 16. 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



45 



peculiar habitation of All-seeing Providence and 
Divine Retribution, he said, in the Grove of the Eu- 
menides what he said on the Hill of Mars : Ye men of 
Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too super- 
stitious. And perhaps here, as in that other instance, 
he did not hesitate to recognize, in the blind devotion 
of the heathen, the trace and shadow of a mighty 
truth, the truth of God. Perhaps here too he said : 
Whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 
Perhaps here, too, he referred to that which certain 
of their own poets had said ; and perhaps he spoke 
also of what had been said by a wiser than their 
poets; even the wise man from whom our text is 
taken. Perhaps he used the words of the Scripture 
which he knew so well, and told his Athenian audi- 
ence that " The eyes of the Lord are in every place, 
beholding the evil and the good" 

That men, however ignorantly, do thus worship ; — 
that this recognition of a Providential sway, directing 
human affairs, correcting and remedying the effects of 
human passion and weakness, is a general conviction 
of mankind, growing out of the common working of 
their mental powers, as well as infused by Divine 
teaching, might easily be shown, if we were to gather 
together the expressions on such subjects employed 
by the poets and philosophers of the ancient world. 
But instead of doing this, my present wish is rather, 
in a very few words, to point out the bearing of this 
recognition upon the subject of which I briefly spoke 
at the last meeting, similar to this, which called us 



46 



SERMON III. 



together. I then said, that for the sake of giving to 
your views of Religion that stable, consistent, com- 
prehensive character which belongs to true philo- 
sophy, it seemed to me, that it might be useful to 
point out the main features of distinction between 
two great provinces of the studies of the more culti- 
vated and thoughtful classes of men in all countries 
favoured by God with a large measure of his intellec- 
tual and social blessings; namely, the provinces of 
Religion and of Law. For Divine and Human Laws, 
although, when we look at them as whole bodies 
of doctrine, they are broadly and plainly distinguish- 
able, are yet connected by many points of union and 
gradation ; and to obtain a true discernment of their 
line of division, is far from easy, and yet would be 
very instructive, for those who seek to reach, on such 
subjects, those clear views at which minds aspiring to 
intellectual culture ought to aim. I have, therefore, 
already began to lay before you what seem to be the 
main points of distinction between those two great 
bodies of truth, Religion and Law ; each considered 
as a portion of systematic human knowledge. And I 
have stated, as the first of these points, that while 
Law contemplates men only as Persons, as creatures 
invested with certain abstract possessions which we 
call Rights, Religion considers men as having Souls ; 
— as liable to duties ; capable of virtues ; capable of 
being trained to purity and holiness ; of being sup- 
ported in the prosecution of these ends ; restored 
when they have gone astray ; led on by God's help to 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



47 



an eternal life with him : — as having all this in their 
destination, and as having, each man his Soul, in which 
these virtues are formed, in which this discipline is 
exercised, on which this purification and support 
must work, for which this eternal blessedness is pre- 
pared. This, then, is the first great difference between 
Human Law and Religion : in Law man is merely a 
Person, but in Religion he is a Living Soul. 

I have now further to note, in accordance with 
what has already been said, that Religion contem- 
plates the world as governed by Providence, while 
Law does not. Law considers the actions of men as 
under their own guidance ; and, so far as she confines 
herself to her own proper department, she considers 
all that is not the work of man as utterly without 
meaning and consequence. She takes into her own 
hands the task of Adjustment of Rights and Retri- 
bution for Wrongs. She looks abroad with a calm 
but severe eye, resolved to tolerate no violence, no 
injustice, no fraud, no breach of faith. All this she 
will set right ; or, if transgressions needs will come, 
she has her sword and her dungeon ready for the 
transgressor. She feels the dignity of her office; — 
she does not hesitate to invest herself with accom- 
paniments suited to her own undoubted majesty. 
She arrays her Judges and Officers in grave and 
noble vestments, she surrounds the judgment-seat with 
the image and the reality of the strength which 
trained and ordered Force can give ; she utters her 
voice in splendid and lofty halls ; and even the frown 



48 SERMON III. 

of her prison-houses is moulded according to elabo- 
rate rules of the builders art. Who does not acknow- 
ledge her aspect as most august and impressive, her 
voice as most solemn and piercing? So august an 
aspect, so solemn a voice, might seem as if she were 
a worthy fellow-ruler of the world, with Religion her- 
self; — an independent, and almost equal, authority. 
Does it indeed appear so ? Let us look a little nearer : 
let us listen a little further. Whence has her voice 
this solemn tone? What is the deepest note which 
gives stress and power to all the rest? Ha! if we 
listen, we hear that it is not as at first it seemed. 
She is not supreme, even in her own courts; she is 
not independent, even where she is most impressive. 
Her most solemn appeal is, not to the mulct, the 
prison, the tormentor, the headsman, but to a Power 
high over these and over her. She calls on men 
to aid her, not as they fear her, but as they fear 
God. She administers an Oath, as her ultimate 
sanction ; and throws the weight of all her processes 
upon this as its foundation. She thus makes all that 
she does rest ultimately upon the belief of that 
Providence which watches over the conduct of human 
affairs ; and which will, sooner or later, bring retribu- 
tion upon the heads of those, who, having thus called 
the Divine Governor of the world to witness what 
they were saying, have lied to Him and to their own 
Souls. This appeal to Providence it is, which gives 
to the administration of human law its highest dig- 
nity; this recognition of a tribunal of God, is that 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



49 



which gives awe to the tribunal of man; — the dread 
and fear of the Divine Judge is the only secure foun- 
dation for the majesty which hangs about the temporal 
judge. 

But though Law and Religion are thus connected ; 
though the one thus depends on the other, there is 
no difficulty in seeing where the one ends and the 
other begins. So long as the appeal is merely to 
human punishments, to human sanctions, the whole 
matter is within the domain of human law : when we 
introduce the solemnity of the Oath, in any form or 
manner, we pass from Law to Religion ; for we make 
an appeal to the Justice and Retribution of a Divine 
Power ; which is a thought, most true and mighty 
indeed; but a thought belonging, not to Law but 
to Religion. 

I need not to detain you by reminding you how 
deeply this belief in a Retributive Power which 
watched over and avenged the violation of oaths, was 
infixed in the minds of those Greeks among whom 
we have been seeking our illustrations of the natural 
religious working of the human mind ; — among whom 
we have found such working, shown in their attempts 
to assign definite forms to the Divine Dealings with 
Crime. You will recollect that tale of the ancient 
Historian, where the Oracle is made to speak of a 
Retribution for Perjury which is so awful a subject of 
thought that it is called " The nameless child of the 
Oath;"- — who, though he has no feet and no hands, 
pursues swiftly till he overtakes the transgressor, and 
w. c. s. E 



50 



SERMON III. 



quits not his hold till he has utterly destroyed him 
and his house 4 '"." 

Nor again need I spend time in shewing how vain 
would be the attempts to administer justice, if those 
who testify against evildoers were not bound to bear 
no false witness, by a solemn duty, as well as by a 
legal obligation. 

Nor yet again need I endeavour to explain to you, 
that in the proceedings of men who believe in God, 
there can be no solemnity given to their words and 
actions, in any other way than by their recollecting 
that they are in God's presence ; and that if they 
declare that they are speaking under this recollection, 
they are, so far as the essential character of the act is 
concerned, giving to their fellow men the sanction of 
an oath for that which they declare. 

To dwell on these points would carry us too far, 
and is not now necessary. Let us rather, before we 
conclude, turn back for a moment to that general 
reflection, which we have already mentioned as one of 
the leading and distinctive points in the teaching of 
Religion, and which is expressed so plainly in our 
text: — "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, 
beholding the good and the evil." And let us recollect 
that this is, for us and in truth, no doubtful conjecture, 
no obscure signification of a dark mythology, no tenet 
of a mere speculative philosophy; but a dread and 
solemn reality; a fundamental part of that revela- 
tion of God by which he has made himself known 

* See Herodotus : Erato, lxxxvi. 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



51 



to us, and in which are centered all our hope and 
consolation and trust, in this world, and in the world 
to come. We know that man, in reality, is not under 
the dominion and direction of a vague superhuman 
influence, working out retribution by mysterious rules, 
for inscrutable ends, but that he is under the eye of 
the Living God, who will reward every man according 
to his works, and whose purpose it is to draw all his 
true servants into an eternal union with himself, in 
which union alone their nature can find its proper 
completion. We know that, as St. Paul told the 
Athenians; He is not far from us; that in Him we 
live, and move, and are ; but that the true end of our 
knowing this is, that we may seek the Lord, if haply 
we may feel Him and find Him. 

We can most fitly describe the universal presence 
of God's Providential Care and Judicial Sanctions, 
not in the language of the poets of the heathen 
world, but in the far higher strains, the far more 
animating and touching language of the Psalmist of 
God's own people. Our hearts respond to the words 
which, once in every month, we are invited to use in 
our morning orisons 4 ": "Lord, thou hast searched me 
out, and known me; thou knowest my downsitting, 
and mine uprising, thou understandest my thoughts 
long before : thou art about my path and about 
my bed, and spiest out all my ways." At home or 
abroad, resting or roving, thine eye is upon me, thy 
ear is open to me. "There is not a word in my 

* Psalms for the 29th Morning of the Month. 

E 2 



52 



SERMON III. 



tongue, but thou, Lord, knowest it altogether." I 
am thy work, thy creature ; " thou hast fashioned me ; 
thou hast laid thine hand upon me." Thou knowest 
my most inward nature and the deepest thoughts 
of my heart. When I think of thy knowledge of 
me, thus penetrating through all coverings, reaching 
through all conditions of time and space, I am over- 
whelmed with admiration and awe. "Whither shall 
I go from thy Spirit? whither shall I go from thy 
presence ? If I climb up into heaven, thou art there ; 
if I go down into hell, thou art there also. If I take 
the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost 
parts of the sea, thy arm is still about me, thy right 
hand still holds me. If I say, Peradventure the 
darkness shall cover me : then shall my night be 
turned into day. The darkness is no darkness with 
thee : the night is as clear as the day : darkness and 
light to thee are both alike." Well indeed may we 
say with our text, " The eyes of the Lord are in every 
place." 

But if we indeed feel this, as a most, true, and 
solid reality, how full of practical consequences, of 
vital importance, must this persuasion be ! The eyes 
of the Lord are in every place ! The eyes of our 
Master, our Lawgiver, our Governor, our Judge, our 
Saviour, our Sanctifier, are upon us in every place. 
He whose nature is too holy to admit of sin, whose 
law is too plain to be mistaken, whose threatenings 
against all ungodliness are loud and terrible, whose 
promises to those that seek Him in his appointed 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



53 



way are pardon and peace ; He is constantly observ- 
ing us. He is constantly marking what is done 
amiss ; looking with patience it may be, but with 
patience which has its limit, upon our levity, our 
coldness, our carelessness in spiritual matters : — look- 
ing with solemn consideration upon many of our 
acts : — looking, we will trust, with an eye of encou- 
ragement and consolation upon some of the efforts 
of some of us. 

Surely most deeply touching and impressive is 
the reflection on which we are now dwelling, when 
we thus consider what it includes. " The eyes of the 
Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the 
good." The eyes of the Lord are in every place, be- 
holding the evil. The eyes of the Lord are in every 
place in which we are ; beholding every act of folly, 
every sally of anger and malice, every pollution of 
the tongue, every temptation to evil, every deed of 
darkness, every act by which we renounce in any 
degree reason and conscience ; by which we deprave 
and degrade the faculties and powers which He has 
given us. Again, the eyes of the Lord behold not the 
evil of the act alone, but the inward emotions in 
which the evil act has its will. Our hearts are naked 
and open in his sight : the thought of impurity, or 
revenge, or deceit, hidden in the bottom of our soul, 
is visible to his ken ; and if we dally with it and 
foster it, will glare upon his eye with the fierce 
aspect of a plague spot. Will not this reflection 
animate us, fortify us, give us zeal and power in sup- 



54 



SERMON III. 



pressing and extinguishing such sparks of evil, before 
they burn more and more, and become a consuming 
fire? Shall we not, when any suggestion of what is 
foul or fierce or selfish, springs up in our minds, 
make an effort to recollect the solemn words of our 
Master, who hath said, " Thy Father seeth in secret ?" 
Shall we not call to our recollection the awful decla- 
ration contained in the first part of our text : " The 
eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding 
the EVIL?" 

But again: we have not only this consideration 
to urge us to suppress and reject the evil, but we 
have much encouragement and comfort on the other 
side : for, as we are further told, The eyes of the Lord 
are in every place, beholding the good. He sees, as 
He invites and aids, every turning of our hearts from 
the evil, every effort which we make to seek and find 
Him. He sees, approves, and has promised to further 
our efforts to become sharers in the Redemption of 
his Son, the Sanctifi cation of his Spirit. He sees, and 
will in his own due season bless, our endeavours to 
derive comfort and purification and strength from 
the ordinances, which He has given us, as portions of 
this dispensation of salvation. Even now He sees us. 
Even now, He sees that we are come here, as I trust, 
with a resolution to acknowledge our manifold sins 
and wickedness, to laud and magnify his glorious 
Name in unison with angels and archangels and with 
all the company of heaven; — to seek, so to partake 
of his Holy Communion, that our soids may be waslied 



RELIGION AND LAW. 



55 



with His most precious blood, and that we may ever- 
more dwell with Him and He with us. And may He, 
of His great mercy, grant that this may be so ! may 
He grant that this may be the good which His eyes 
shall, in this place on this day, see ; and may He truly 
have mercy upon us : pardon and deliver us from all 
our sins : confirm and strengthen us in all goodness : 
and bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord! 



SERMON IV. 



(1842. Michaelmas Term.) 



Ephesians IV. 1, and part of Verse 2. 

/ therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye 
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 
with all lowliness and meekness. 

OOME of you may perhaps recollect that when, a 
year ago, I had occasion, for the first time, to 
address you from this place, I made the foundation of 
what I then delivered the words which I have just 
read. / therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech 
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye 
are called. I there endeavoured to impress upon you 
that though Paul the Apostle was, in an especial man- 
ner, the prisoner of the Lord, and entitled to claim 
of his Christian brethren a peculiar regard to his 
requests, from the bonds which he had to wear upon 
his bodily frame, in consequence of his exertions in the 
cause of his heavenly Master ; yet that all we also, 
who occupy stations of fixed import and stated duty 
in the Church of Christ, and in the Institutions which 
are dedicated to his service, are likewise, in a larger 
sense, the prisoners of the Lord, bound to do his 



HUMILITY. 



57 



work, and having it for our office also, to beseech you 
to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are 
called. I also endeavoured to bring to your minds 
several calls which all of you have received, besides 
those other special calls with which the peculiar Pro- 
vidences of God, — events in your outward history, or 
in the history of your spirit within you, — may have 
addressed different persons, each in his own appointed 
time. You have all been called in your Baptism, 
when you were made a child of God and an inheritor 
of the kingdom of heaven ; — when it was promised 
for you that you should resist the world, the flesh, 
and the devil, and continue Christ's faithful soldier 
and servant to your lives' end. You were called in 
your Confirmation, when you declared that in the 
presence of God and of his Congregation you renewed 
the solemn promise and vow that was made in your 
name at your Baptism. You are called by the Ordi- 
nance of which you are now invited to partake ; and 
in which you are urged to " offer and present to your 
Divine Master, yourselves, your souls and bodies, to 
be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Him." 
And I then ventured — may it not have been in 
vain, with regard to those who needed such a warning ! 
— to beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation 
wherewith you are called in these great occasions of 
your Christian life ; — to attend to the voice which 
thus repeatedly addresses itself to your spiritual ear. 
I would most gladly believe that the voice which I, — 
and yet not I, but the Church of Christ, speaking in 



58 



SERMON IV. 



the words of its appointed ordinances, — the Apostle 
of Christ speaking on his Master's behalf to his 
brethren and fellow-servants, — nay, rather, the voice 
which Christ himself, speaking through his ordinances, 
through his Church, and through his Apostle, — has 
uttered in your ears, has not found them deaf and 
obdurate — dull to heavenly sounds, or occupied with 
the songs and trumpetings of the world ; — but that 
you have listened to the call ; that you have acknow- 
ledged the summons ; have been impelled and guided 
by the divine oracle thus speaking for your admoni- 
tion, and comfort, and encouragement ; — and that you 
have indeed walked worthy of the vocation wherewith 
you are called. 

But the call comes yet again. The course of this 
our House, revolving in constant cycles, brings back 
to us the sacred ordinance of which I last spoke, and 
thus again utters its beseeching voice in our ears ; — to 
some of you a repetition of the call which you have 
already heard; — but to many of you, a call in its 
form and circumstances new. Many of you have 
lately been summoned from the houses and schools 
of your earlier life, to this, the future school, it may 
be, of your larger studies, the future home, we trust, 
of your intellectual powers. You have left the scenes 
in which those earlier events of your Christian life, 
the initiatory ordinances of the Church, the influence 
of a Christian family, the first yearnings of the young 
heart after things good and excellent, the first con- 
sciousness of your spiritual powers, your spiritual 



HUMILITY. 



59 



destiny, your spiritual dangers, your spiritual privi- 
leges and hopes, have hitherto, (we trust,) wrought 
upon your hearts for good — working along with all 
that has roused your understanding and your imagi- 
nation, and led them to lay hold of a delight in the 
wise and bright thought, the sweet and noble lan- 
guage, of the men of the ancient days. And you 
come now, for the first time, to partake of the ordi- 
nance with which this our family, according to its 
ancient laws and usages, in every season of every year, 
is directed to hallow and consecrate its secular studies, 
by uniting all its disciples as partakers of the strength- 
ening and purifying efficacy of that union with himself 
to which our heavenly Saviour unites and draws us. 
By you, we trust that this occasion will be received 
as a solemn call to recollect that you are God's ser- 
vants and children ; — that before and above all other 
characters and names, of students, lovers of distinction, 
lovers of excellence, richly cultured and richly gifted 
men, — before and above all this, you are called as the 
servants and children of God through Christ ; and 
receiving the occasion as such a call, we trust also 
that you will listen to us, when we beseech you to 
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. 

But thus trusting, let us attend yet a little longer 
to the exhortation and entreaty of the Apostle, which 
we thus have placed before us. He beseeches his 
Ephesian brethren that they would walk worthy of 
the vocation wherewith they were called. But he 
does not there finish his address. He does not thus 



60 



SERMON IV. 



content himself with this mere general exhortation. 
To walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they were 
called was a maxim which, however vaguely under- 
stood, must have been sufficient, if fully impressed 
upon the hearts of the Ephesians, to restrain them 
from many things commonly practised by those 
around them, and probably by themselves, before 
they were called. It might not have been unmeaning 
or unprofitable, if the Apostle had said no more than 
that which I have already read ; for the very circum- 
stances of their calling, the feeling of their own 
condition which had made them listen to and accept 
the call, the language of the call itself, did not fail 
to explain, in some degree, how they must walk 
worthy of it. The call not merely bade them walk, 
but told them of the path in which they must walk. 
But still, they wanted more than this general and 
suggestive guidance in their walking. They needed 
a further unfolding of the import of this call, and 
of the things which were worthy of it. They re- 
quired to have it traced out in its particulars, and 
imprinted upon their memory. It was fit for them 
to have the path described furlong by furlong, step 
by step, turn by turn : — to be warned of the false 
paths which branch off from it ; of the temptations 
to turn aside, to tarry, to travel slothfully ; — in short, 
it was good for them to have the whole nature and 
import of the call, the form and scheme of their path, 
the spirit in which they were to walk in it, impressed 
upon their souls, with all faithfulness of detail, and 



HUMILITY 



61 



knowledge of man's heart, and zeal for rendering- 
effectual the purposes of Christ who calls him. 

This accordingly St. Paul proceeds to do. After 
having, as we have seen, in general terms, besought 
the Ephesian Christians to walk worthy of the voca- 
tion wherewith they are called, he goes on to describe, 
by an enumeration of many modes of human action, 
and many shades of human temper and feeling, in 
what such worthy walking consists. He urges upon 
his disciples many virtues and graces and affections, 
which, though all flowing from the unity of the 
Christian spirit, and all converging to the singleness 
of the Christian life, are yet capable of becoming 
separately objects of our care and attention, of our 
desire and love, of our efforts and prayers. And as 
we have besought your consideration for the Apostle's 
general entreaty, to walk worthy of the vocation 
wherewith Christians are called, we would now follow 
him one step further ; and with him beg you to lay 
to heart some of the special injunctions and precepts 
which his earnest appeal embraces. 

And upon the present occasion, let us turn our 
attention to the first feature which occurs in the 
Apostle's description of that worthy walking which 
he urges upon his Christian scholars. What is the 
first character which he gives of the Christian con- 
duct? What is the first disposition of mind which 
he recommends to their approval and exertion ? How, 
first of all, are they to walk, so as to walk worthy 
of their vocation? 



62 



SERMON IV. 



The first — the primary and foremost character 
of their Christian course is to be, that they walk 
with all lowliness and meekness. This is the temper 
by which, in the first instance, men are to shew that 
they have rightly understood their Vocation, — that 
they have truly apprehended the language in which 
their Divine Master has called them. In order to 
walk worthy of that vocation, they must walk with 
all lowliness and meekness. 

And in truth this might well be : for in what 
terms had the call been uttered by Him whose am- 
bassador Paul was ? " Learn of me, for I am meek 
and lowly of heart;" and again, "Blessed are the 
meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are 
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" 
And Paul had, on no occasion, forgotten this charac- 
ter of his Master's call. To the Corinthians, he had 
said, perhaps recollecting these very passages, "/ be- 
seech you by the meekness of Christ" (2 Cor. x. 1.) 
He had told the Galatians (v. 23) that "the fruit of 
the spirit is temperance and meekness;" he had ex- 
horted the Colossians (iii. 12) to "put on meekness 
and long-suffering." He had enjoined Timothy to 
"follow after faith, love, patience, meekness;" he had 
directed Titus to " be gentle, showing all meekness to 
all men;" and he could therefore most consistently 
beseech the Ephesians, or rather, in such an exhort- 
ation as the one now before us, he could not fail to 
beseech them, to walk with all lowliness and meekness. 
And in like manner, the minister of Christ in these 



HUMILITY. 



63 



our own times, whose office it is to urge upon those to 
whom he ministers what Christ has taught and Paul 
has inculcated before, may well entreat his hearers, 
or rather, he dare not omit to entreat them, earnestly 
and on all occasions, to walk with all lowliness and 
meekness. 

Nor, in truth, in thus urging upon his hearers 
this duty of humility and meekness, has the Christian 
preacher in general any difficulty in obtaining an 
assent of the understanding and the lips to the obli- 
gation and the merit of such qualities. We are all 
ready to allow that such a temper is most consonant 
to the constant teaching, and to the example of our 
blessed Saviour ; that it is in itself amiable and beau- 
tiful; that its prevalence would be of inestimable 
benefit to society. All assent to the voice which 
says, Blessed are the meek. All admire the grace of 
humility. All acknowledge the duty of avoiding a 
too lofty opinion of ourselves, — of attending to the 
claims and feelings of others,— of repressing a self- 
exalting and self-seeking spirit, — of watching over 
our propensity to pride, vainglory, imperiousness, 
petulance, impatience, anger, slighting, scorn. All 
acknowledge this duty; — but yet how few practise 
it ! When we have obtained the assent of the under- 
standing, how little have we done towards governing 
and forming the conduct ! While all admire humility 
as graceful and good, how much is there among us, 
of those opposite offences, of which I have spoken. 
Do we not see men around us — alas ! my Christian 



64 



SERMON IV. 



brethren, are we not all of us ourselves — too often 
proud, vain, imperious, petulant, impatient, angry, 
slighting, scornful ? When we hear our Great Teacher 
say, Blessed are the meek, we are ready to say Amen, 
Lord ; but how imperfectly, how ill, how little do we 
obey him, when he cries, Learn of me, for I am meek 
and lowly ! How slow are we to learn this lesson ! 
apt scholars it may be in other matters, but in this, 
most dull. With all the teaching we have received, 
with all the advantages we have enjoyed, how small 
is the progress we have made ! How quickly do we 
forget what we learn ! How constantly do we make 
the grossest mistakes in the simplest elements of this 
lore ! How constantly do we need to have the lesson 
afresh uttered in our ears, urged upon our attention, 
impressed on our memories ; and if it might be, on 
our hearts. 

And why is this ? Alas, my brethren, the cause is 
too plain. It is, that we do but learn our lesson by 
rote, and do not truly know it. The understanding 
assents, but the heart is not changed. The lesson 
lies there upon the surface of our being, and does not 
sink into its depths. Our reason, which we have in 
common with all men, readily places humility in the 
front rank of our obligations, as St. Paul places it here ; 
but that which is more truly ourselves, — our personal 
emotions, loves, hates, desires, affections, — has other 
objects, other guidance, other government. The rea- 
son has assented to the truth, and all seems well. 
In calm seasons all is smooth. We know our duty, 



HUMILITY. 



G5 



we accept its obligations. But the storm suddenly 
bursts — some flash of temptation darts from the 
serene sky — and all is in an uproar ; the winds roar — 
restraint is gone — reason, duty whisper unheard amid 
the tempest. In the turmoil, our real nature boils up 
from its dark and turbulent abysses. Self-opinion, 
hate, scorn, wrath, levity with regard to the claims of 
others, immoderateness with regard to our own — 
these, it appears, are what we are truly made of ; these 
are our elements ; these are the strong influences by 
which we are now impelled. When we are brought 
to the proof, it appears but too plainly, that humility 
and meekness are not wrought into our character. 
When we search to the bottom, we find there something 
very different. When we are probed deeply by the 
temptations which temperament, age, circumstance 
or position bring, then we discover, or at least show 
to others, how little the humility, the meekness, the 
lowliness, which we pretended to admire has really 
been appropriated by our hearts, and made part of 
the inward structure of our souls. 

This want or forgetfulness of real humility is 
brought into view, as we have said, by various kinds 
of temptation ; — and, among the rest, by some habits 
of mind which are in the highest degree delightful and 
exhilirating, to those who are under their influence ; 
and indeed, it is precisely in this their pleasantness 
and joyousness, that their power of temptation resides. 
There is danger, needing to be guarded against by 
constant watchfulness and self-restraint, in some of 
w. c. s. F 



66 



SERMON IV. 



nature's sweetest and choicest boons. There is danger 
for instance,— there is need of sober self-control, in 
that joy and alacrity which is brought to us at a 
certain period of youth by the working of our own 
minds and imaginations. There is a period at which 
men first come fully to feel their powers of thought, 
and intellectual enjoyment ; of judgment respecting 
characters and modes of conduct in the world of 
free and resolute action. All these powers are vast, 
are invaluable privileges. The gratification which 
accompanies the consciousness of their possession, is 
a monition, and not a false or fallacious one, that 
we should most highly value and most resolutely use 
them. But yet even in these precious gifts there is 
danger. The joy may be tinged too largely with 
exultation, with pride, with self-opinion, with a dis- 
position to depreciate and despise others ; — to slight 
their claims, their merits, their feelings; — to forget 
the grave and solemn responsibilities which the very 
having such gifts implies. This delight of youth, so 
pleasant, so elevating, may intoxicate, may pervert 
us; it may interfere with our proper estimate of 
ourselves, our proper temper, our conduct; — it may 
prevent our acting with all lowliness and meekness, 
and thus hinder us from walking worthy of the voca- 
tion wherewith we are called. 

This is, as we have said, a temptation to which 
some of us here may be especially exposed. But let 
me not dwell upon it. Let us not fix our thoughts on 
the unloveliness and unfitness of a want of humility 



HUMILITY. 



67 



and gentleness in youth. Let it suffice to have re- 
collected for a moment that such errors may be 
committed, that such temptations may assail and 
overcome us. Let this suffice to put us on our guard ; 
to warn us to use all diligence to make our calling 
and election sure ; and for this purpose, to walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called in 
all lowliness and meekness. In truth, the call con- 
tains expressions which are well suited to disperse all 
those lofty fancies ; to blow away this intoxicating 
perfume of self-complacency. What hast thou, O man, 
that thou hast not received? what, that thousands 
before thee, generation after generation, have not re- 
ceived? Is not the best exercise of thy powers, of all 
thy faculties and talents, due to God; a meet, yet 
when all is given, a most insufficient offering, to his 
service ? Even so. We are called upon now to offer 
and present unto him ourselves, our souls and bodies, 
to be a reasonable, holy, living sacrifice ; — yet all the 
while professing that we are unworthy to offer unto 
Him any sacrifice. When we have done all, we are 
yet unprofitable servants; very far, therefore, from 
any condition in which a presumptuous mood, an 
inwardly boastful spirit, can befit us. Unworthy our 
services are of the bounties we have received ; of the 
great scheme of mercy to us which we are now to 
commemorate. But though unworthy, our services, 
earnestly and steadily tendered, with a serious and 
humble spirit, in the way which God's providence 
points out, may still show our willingness to serve, 

F2 



68 



SERMON IV. 



our sense of the blessings which we have received. 
This, a serious and reverent mind, a sense of duty and 
responsibility in all that we do, a mistrust and rejec- 
tion of the spirit of glorying with regard to our own 
advantages, of levity and stubbornness with regard to 
the claims of others, different from us in position and 
station, these precautions, and the temper and habits 
which grow out of these, — will fit us for any position 
in which we may be placed. This will enable us to 
walk, however obscurely, in the path which our Divine 
Master and his Apostles have marked out for us. We 
shall thus walk with all lowliness and meekness ; and 
if even so, not worthy, yet so, least unworthy, of the 
vocation wherewith we are called. 

This may we all do, by God's help and favour 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



SERMON V. 



(1843. Lent Term.) 



St. Matthew V. part of Verse 13. 
Ye are the salt of the earth, 
OU will recollect these words as a part of that 



J- remarkable discourse which our Saviour Jesus 
Christ, at the beginning of his ministry, delivered to 
the multitudes who had assembled to hear Him, and 
to the disciples whom He had especially called. He 
had begun to preach and to say, Repent, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand. He had called Simon 
Peter and Andrew his brother; James the son of 
Zebedee, and John his brother. He had gone about 
all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preach- 
ing the Gospel of the kingdom. And when great 
numbers followed Him from Galilee, and from Deca- 
polis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judsea, and from 
beyond Jordan, seeing the multitude, He went up into 
a mountain ; and when he was set, his disciples came 
unto Him ; and He uttered that discourse which they 
and the people heard with astonishment, and to which 
the thoughts and hearts of all his disciples in all 
succeeding ages have constantly turned, as to an 




70 



SERMON V. 



inexhaustible treasure of most precious truths and 
doctrines, precepts and promises. 

The clause which I have taken as my text forms 
one of the early portions of this Sermon on the 
Mount. Although, from its import, it may seem to 
have been more especially addressed to his chosen 
disciples ; yet from its place in the discourse, closely 
connected as it is with exhortations and commands 
of a general application, it must be considered as in 
a great degree spoken to all who were ready to re- 
ceive it, — to all who were willing to become disciples, 
as well as to those who were about to be teachers. 
The Apostles, who were expressly commissioned by 
their Divine Master to preach the Gospel of the king- 
dom of heaven, were, in a peculiar and eminent sense, 
the Salt of the Earth: but to all who had waited 
eagerly for the kingdom, who gladly received its in- 
fluences, and strove to aid in diffusing them through 
the earth, to all such, however humble, or weak, or 
obscure they might be, it might be said, and doubt- 
less was on this occasion said, Ye are the Salt of the 
Earth. 

The expression is figurative; and though there 
have been, among the students of Scripture, differ- 
ences of opinion as to what the figure is taken from, 
the general nature and use of the thing intended are 
so plainly indicated, that we see without difficulty 
what is the purpose and meaning of the comparison. 
The substance here spoken of has an efficacy in re- 
sisting the natural tendency of bodies to corruption, 



THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 



71 



so that it may be taken as an image of a "principle of 
life. Yon will recollect that one of the wise men of 
the ancient Gentile world, when he spoke of the vital 
element which animates the body of a grovelling 
brute (according to the language of his country's 
philosophy) as a soul, said at the same time, that it 
was such a soul as merely answered the purpose of 
salt, keeping the carcass of the animal from being- 
resolved by putrefaction into decay. And thus this 
substance was deemed to have a life-giving, and be- 
cause a life-giving, a sacred character. And God, by 
his own command, appropriated it to his especial ser- 
vice, and required it as an element in all his sacrifices. 
As it is enjoined in the book of Leviticus, (ii. 13.) 
" Every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou sea- 
son with salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the 
covenant of thy God to be lacking from the meat- 
offering. With all thy offerings thou shalt offer salt." 
And accordingly, this sacred . rite is referred to, as 
familiar and universal, in the passage of St. Mark 
which corresponds with our text. Every sacrifice, it 
is there said, shall be salted with salt. (Mark ix. 49.) 
And thus, those who were told that they were the 
salt of the earth, were, in effect, told that they were 
to supply to the world the element by which it was 
to be preserved from sinking into corruption, filth, 
disease and death ; and by which it was to be fitted 
to become an offering to Almighty God ; — a sacrifice 
presented to Him in a way agreeable to his covenant, 
his command, the designs of his Providence. 



72 



SERMON V. 



Now how could it in this sense be said to those 
whom our Lord addressed in our Text, " Ye are the 
salt of the earth T If, in the first place, we consider 
these words as directed to his twelve disciples, to 
whom, shortly after, as we learn from the Evangelist's 
narrative, He gave commission, to preach the Gospel, 
and power to work miracles, and by whom, in the 
course of a short time, the greater part of the world 
was brought to the knowledge of God, and of the life 
which had been given to it through his Son ;— we may 
see abundant reason why our Divine Master, knowing 
what their operation upon the earth should be, should 
say unto them, " Ye are the salt of the earth." For 
so it was, that without the life-giving force, which, 
through them, began to work upon men, all higher 
life must have been lost in men's souls, and the world 
must have become a prey to the powers of decay and 
death. All prospect of moral purity among men, — 
of their knowledge of God, — of their reconcilement to 
Him, — of their acting as his servants, and advancing 
towards union with Him, — must have been closed ; 
and depravity, degradation, dissolution and despair, 
must have been the lot of the race of man. In 
the heathen world, all the ordinances and traditions 
which had, at an earlier period, preserved among 
men some trace and indication of Divinity, however 
marred and disguised, had lost their hold upon men's 
minds; and disbelief, selfishness, violence and sensu- 
ality, seemed to rule as if the world were given them 
in possession. Among the Jews, the vital spark of 



THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 



73 



spiritual life lurked, indeed, unextinguished ; the fire 
of the altar still burnt, concealed by ashes, and ready 
to light the flame of a greater and nobler Temple- 
service ; the Salt of the Covenant still lay upon their 
sacrifices ; and corruption, though it had made fearful 
and loathsome ravages, had not destroyed all, nor 
poisoned the springs of hope and faith in every part : 
but yet that which remained most precious in the 
Sanctuary of the Temple, most deeply rooted in the 
hearts of the faithful, was the belief and hope that 
some new principle of life was soon to be shed abroad 
by God upon his servants; some better preservative 
than they then had, against the torpor and deadness, 
the misery and ruin, which now lay upon the face of 
the Old Covenant. The ancient rites and ordinances, 
commands and promises, had led the hopes of them 
who were Israelites indeed, to that kingdom of hea- 
ven which was to appear upon earth, and was to 
convert dead ceremonies into living realities. And 
those who preached this kingdom, beginning from 
Judaea, and going forth into all the world, expanding 
the covenant of Abraham into its wider significance, 
so that through it all the nations of the earth became 
blessed ; — these persons were indeed those who rescued 
men from the deadness of the letter, and taught them 
to live in newness of life : and to these it might in a 
most especial and emphatic manner be said, Ye are 
the Salt of the Earth. 

But as I have already said, it would be to nar- 
row too much the application of these words of our 



74 



SERMON V. 



Saviour to consider them only with reference to his 
chosen disciples who stood near him when he uttered 
them. The gracious expressions which he then used 
were to serve for exhortation and encouragement to 
all his faithful disciples and followers in all ages, until 
his second coming : and as it was for our comfort and 
instruction that he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: blessed are the 
meek, for they shall inherit the earth : blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God : so it was for 
our comfort and instruction that he said, in the same 
discourse, and almost immediately afterwards, Ye are 
the salt of the earth. Not in the times of the Apostles 
alone, but at all times, must there have been those to 
whom our Divine Master, speaking with that perpetual 
voice which proceeds from his Scripture, says, Ye are 
the salt of the earth. In every age there have been 
those through whom was received, and transmitted 
among men, that principle of a higher life, which was 
first shed abroad and put in operation by the preach- 
ing and teaching of Christ and his Apostles. In every 
age there have been men, sharing in some degree, 
however small, in the spirit of the Apostles, whose 
•words and deeds, by the blessing of God, have exerted 
an efficacy to elevate man above the grovelling ten- 
dencies of his mere human nature ; to purify his heart 
from the pollution of his lusts ; to lead his thoughts 
towards his Creator and Judge ; to make him feel his 
need of a Saviour, and find a Saviour for his needs ; 
to open his heart to the influences of God's Holy 



THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 



75 



Spirit, and to draw him to union with his brother 
men^ through union with the great source and seat 
of his spiritual life, his Lord and Saviour Christ. 
However weak and feeble they have been, however 
insufficient in their own strength and force to do 
any, the smallest particle, of all this, there have, in 
every age of Christ's Church, been those, who through 
the aid of God's own power, through the working 
of his Spirit in the hearts of men and in the course of 
the world, have kept alive the better part of man's 
nature ; have carried on the war with sin and folly, 
with selfishness and sensuality, with mere earthward 
thoughts and cares, with despondency and apathy, 
with forgetfulness of God ; with neglect or perversion 
of the commands which he has given, of the declara- 
tions of his will, of the manifestations of his purposes, 
of the invitations of his mercy, of the promises of his 
blessedness. Amid a mass of mere matter, or of 
aimless motion ; of mechanical turmoil or lethargic 
deadness ; there still have never been wanting in the 
world the elements of life. The seed of a better 
nature has never been killed ; the salt has never lost 
its savour: there have always been those to whom 
the Son of God, speaking from his eternal mountain, 
might say, Ye are the Salt of the Earth. 

And even if we leave out of consideration personal 
gifts and endowments which may seem to mark some 
particular persons as in a peculiar and eminent manner 
the salt of the earth, there are, in Christian communi- 
ties, certain stations and conditions which are of such 



76 SERMON V. 

important efficacy for the great purpose to which we 
have referred, that we may apply to persons so cir- 
cumstanced the image which we find in our text. It 
is true, that no rank or station, no age or condition, 
can invest men with any peculiar gifts or merits, so 
that we should, on that account, say to them " Ye are 
the salt of the earth :" but in truth, we should much 
distrust and pervert the image, if we allowed it to lead 
us into the vain fancy, that any man can have such 
efficacy as is here spoken of, by any virtue or power 
of his own ; or in any other way than by the appoint- 
ment of God. For how was it that the salt, sprinkled 
upon the sacrifice, made it more fit to be offered to the 
Almighty ? was it not because it was the appointment 
of God ? because he had said, Thou shalt season thy 
oblation with salt : because he has commanded that it 
should not be lacking, and had called it the Salt of 
the Covefiant. It was no natural virtue of the salt 
which fitted it to sanctify the sacrifice ; and just as 
little do we mean, that any state or condition among 
men gives to them any personal merit or value, when 
we say that there are states and conditions which 
make man's conduct so important in keeping up the 
higher life of those among whom they are placed, 
that we may with propriety say to them, Ye are the 
Salt of the Earth. 

I will give very briefly two examples of this, 
which may serve to lead us who are here present, 
to take a special interest in the words of my text. I 
say, in the first place, that all who are invested with 



THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 



77 



the office of Teachers are in an especial manner the 
Salt of the Earth. For what, in truth, is education, 
except, as men by the very word declare, the calling 
out, in the soul of man, those faculties and powers 
which therein reside ; — which form a life deeper than 
the mere life of the body, and which must needs be 
preserved, educed, and consecrated, in order that man 
may not sink below his true destiny. It is for the 
purpose of drawing out, stimulating, and sanctifying 
these powers, that the Salt of the Earth, in the sense 
of our text, is needed; and to those who are employed 
in such tasks, the words of the text are applicable. 
In a peculiar manner, no doubt, these words are 
applicable to those whose teaching is of spiritual 
things. That is the highest education, which brings 
out the life by which man most approaches towards 
God; — by which, in spite of the gross infirmities and 
pollutions of his nature, he tends to become pure, 
even as He is pure, and perfect, even as He is perfect. 
But even other matters, which do not so immediately 
affect man's relation to his Heavenly Master, are yet 
* a part of the true aliment of his spirit, and tend to 
sustain and feed his spiritual life. All that enlarges 
and elevates the faculties of his mind, his under- 
standing, his imagination, his reason ; all that gives 
him a living interest in the past, the future, the 
distant, the profound, the good; all that warms his 
love for his brother men, and raises his hopes of 
what they may become, and may do, even here on 
earth ; all this educes and unfolds his better nature ; 



78 



SERMON V. 



and they who stimulate in his mind the stirrings of 
such faculties and such interests; they too are em- 
ployed in preserving the vitality of his nobler part ; 
they are contending against the other and worser 
parts of his nature ; against the urgency of mere sense 
and self ; against the elements which he has in com- 
mon with the wild beast and the foul brute ; against 
the influences of pollution and wrath ; whose course 
is corruption and pestilence, and their end desolation 
and death. And happily, in all Christian commu- 
nities, the office of resisting this tendency to putre- 
faction and destruction in human society, is not left 
to the casual zeal and personal ability of individual 
men; but persons are put in appointed places for 
that very purpose ; are carefully fitted for their offices; 
are invested with the authority, and charged with the 
responsibility, which so grave a task demands; are 
marked, in various ways, as those to whom men 
solemnly commit the care of keeping alive the pre- 
servative influences of human society, of giving poig- 
nancy to the energies of their minds, of directing 
them to their loftiest and noblest designation. And 
to those men who in every Christian community 
worthily discharge so important, so essential, so ele- 
vated an office as this, we may venture to say in the 
words of our text, Ye are the Salt of the Earth. 

But there is another class of persons to whom we 
may also say, in an especial manner, Ye are the Salt 
of the Earth ; namely, to the Young ; and particularly 
to that portion of them who, by their place in the 



THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 



79 



world, and by the education which they receive, may 
be looked upon as the future teachers and directors 
of men. We can labour, each but for our day ; and we 
must all trust to others to carry on the work in which 
we are engaged, in whatever way it be that we seek 
to forward God's purposes on earth. We who are 
here, for example, gladly bestow such ability as we 
have, in teaching and counselling, in exhorting and 
directing. And may God grant that our labour may 
not be in vain, and that we may be true to the tasks 
appointed us by His Providence ! But however faith- 
fully and strenuously we may toil to teach the doc- 
trines, and to unfold the faculties, by which the life of 
the world is to be preserved, by which the community 
in which we live is to be strengthened and animated 
to resist the powers of sin and misery, of impurity 
and degradation ; — however much we may struggle 
to expel the principles of evil, to foster and forward 
the elements of good ; — yet that we shall labour with 
any abiding fruit ; that any little good that we achieve 
may become, in any degree, permanent on earth, must 
depend upon what you do, when the task becomes 
yours. All that is here taught, which really purifies, 
or elevates, or enlarges men's minds, we would that 
you should, not only passively receive into your memo- 
ries, as a mere form of words ; but that you should 
admit it into your very minds and hearts, which alone 
can truly be called receiving. If there be any such 
good here taught, we would that you should know 
and believe it, and make it truly yours ; not only for 



80 



SERMON V. 



your own inestimable benefit, but also in order that 
you may, in your turn, transmit and diffuse it ; — in 
order that you too may aid this Christian community 
to which you belong, in its warfare with misery and sin, 
— in its efforts to reach such further vantage-ground, as 
God's commands and God's promises lead us to hope 
to find. This you can aid us to do. In this, without 
you, we have no power to do at all. If you do not 
take your part in this work, what we do perishes with 
us. But if you too carry on this warfare, as true and 
faithful soldiers of the great Captain of our salvation, 
you can do far more than merely teach what here you 
learn, or continue to do what here we do. Each 
generation has its office. Each generation has its own 
views, its own condition ; — its own lights to enable 
it to see its duty ; its own motives to animate it in 
the doing. Doctrines and truths, which we see dimly, 
and with effort, will, perhaps, to you be clear and 
easy. Difficulties which alarm us, and which appear 
impenetrable and dark, may to your eyes, in future 
years, open their dusky sides, and show light through 
widening fissures, and crumble into fragments, and 
pass away. Sources of misery that now sweep over 
the land in bitter and seemingly uncontrollable deluge, 
may be dried up, or turned into limited and govern- 
able streams. It may be yours to do this. It must 
be yours, and the task of others like you, to do it, if 
it is at all to be done. Either falsehood, and guilt, and 
pollution, and woe, and corruption, must creep further 
and further over the body of society, tainting and 



THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 



81 



poisoning the mass, and extinguishing the seeds of 
life, or you must be the means of withstanding and 
averting their progress, of restoring and revitalizing 
the suffering and corrupted members ; and therefore 
we cannot say to you less than that which we have 
said, Ye are the Salt of the Earth. Either the designs 
of Providence must be frustrated ; the course of the 
world must run backward; the powers of darkness 
and of death must more and more prevail upon the 
earth; or else the designs of Providence must pro- 
ceed ; a glorious and holy progress must go on ; the 
kingdoms of this world must become more and more 
the kingdoms of God, and of his Christ : and you, and 
others like you, are the persons whom he places in 
the front of this progress, to whom he commits the 
continuation of this work ; — -and doing so, by the dis- 
pensation which places you where you are, he says to 
you, Ye are the Salt of the Earth. And thus we may 
all consider, as in some degree addressed to ourselves, 
these weighty words. For us they were written. To 
us they are said. 

But need I remind you, in a spirit how different 
from a spirit of elation and self-complacency they are 
to be received? Oh, surely not! Who among us 
is there, who hears in them anything but a solemn 
declaration of a most grave and awful responsibility : 
tolerable, only because, while we accept it, we are 
doing God's will, and may rest our weakness upon 
his promises. How otherwise should we, feeble and 
w. c. s. G 



82 



SERMON V. 



polluted creatures as we are, hope to resist the cor- 
ruption of the world, when we are so woefully over- 
burthened with our own ? But He has promised 
to be with those that do His work. He can illumine 
what in us is dark, and raise and support what is 
low. He can strengthen, and purify, and sanctify 
us. If our salt should lose its savour, he can restore 
it. He can touch us with his Holy Spirit, and thus 
make our vile bodies and our weak faculties an 
acceptable sacrifice in his sight, rendered, by his own 
will, and his own ordinances, meet for his service. 
May He so at all times and in all things strengthen 
and purify and sanctify all of us ! And may He spe- 
cially impart to us his Holy Spirit, in virtue of the 
ordinances which bring us together in this place ; to 
confess our sins and weaknesses to him ; to pray to 
him for pardon; to thank him for his mercies; to 
celebrate his glorious attributes ! May we find here, 
and may our brethren find, in all places where they 
call upon his name, the strength which they need, 
in order that they may do his will upon earth, and 
so, hasten the coming of his kingdom ! 

And now that we here are met in a more especial 
manner to seek his blessing by means of his own holy 
ordinance, may He be with us, and pour his influence 
upon us ! We are met, like his first disciples, on the 
first day of the week to break bread : may He make 
that which we now receive efficacious to strengthen 
and purify our hearts to his service ! We seek from 



THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 83 

him a principle of life, without which we are alto- 
gether dead in strength and will. And He has said, 
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink 
his blood, ye have no life in you. And we come here, 
humbly seeking the true life of the soul at his hands. 
We come here to offer ourselves as a sacrifice to him, 
and we would supplicate him to scatter upon the 
sacrifice the salt of the Covenant, that we may be 
acceptable in his sight. We beseech Him to touch 
us with the fire of his Holy Spirit, which may impart 
to the deadness of our nature, vitality and strength, 
insight and courage, purity and love. May He vouch- 
safe to cleanse us from the corruption of our human 
condition, from all pollutions of our former life, from 
all feebleness of heart and perverseness of will. May 
he thus make us fit to do His will ; to act our part in 
the designs of His good Providence ; and may He teach 
us what that part is, and reveal to us His will con- 
cerning us, so far as we need to know it, as a guide 
and support in our progress through this life ! May 
He, if it seem good to him, make us to be of the 
number of those whom He uses as the salt of the 
earth : but may He, at least, protect us from the dire 
calamity of living there where the salt has lost its 
saltness ! May we share in the blessings brought to 
mankind by those who, from the first, preached the 
Gospel of his kingdom : may we, if it be His good 
pleasure, aid, in our own generation, in diffusing the 
knowledge of Him, and in forwarding the progress 
of His designs; but may we, may we, at least, 

G2 



84 



SERMON V. 



find a place in his glorious kingdom, which He will 
establish when the fulness of times is accomplish- 
ed, and when the whole Creation, so long preserved, 
by His power, from dissolution and ruin, shall be 
gathered to the Creator, and God in Christ shall be 
All in all ! 

This may He of his mercy grant 1 



SERMON VI. 



(1843. Easter Term.) 



Acts II. 29—31. 

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the 
patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his 
sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a 
prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to 
him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, 
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne ; He seeing 
this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His 
soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see cor- 
ruption. 

rPHE Christian Church, in all the ages of her his- 
tory, has been accustomed to introduce largely 
into her services, the Psalms of David ; to adopt and 
appropriate, as her own language, the expressions of 
praise and prayer, of contrition and gratitude, which 
she finds in that part of the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament; and to commend those expressions to 
the habitual use of her worshippers in their devotions. 
In this way the words of the Psalms become familiar 
to the ears of those who take a part in Christian 
worship. There is scarcely any expression of feeling, 



86 



SERMON VI. 



or any turn of language, in this Collection of Hymns, 
which is not well known as household words to the 
frequenters of God's temple. And for the most part, 
these expressions are such as our hearts readily ac- 
cept and assent to, as fitted to our condition. We 
can pray to God or praise him, utter our sorrow or 
our trust, in the language of David, with a deep and 
lively perception of its suitableness to what our in- 
ternal emotions are, or what they ought to be. 

Yet when we take the whole Book of the Psalms 
together, we cannot be surprized if here and there 
we find expressions of which the aptness to our situ- 
ation and to our feelings is less obvious. For David 
was the worshipper of a dispensation imperfectly 
understood and partially unfolded ; and moreover, his 
own heart was not free from impurity ; his character 
was mixed and imperfect. Seeing then that the 
Psalms are not so entirely the utterance of the Spirit 
of God, but that they contain many strong manifes- 
tations of David's personal character, of his thoughts 
and feelings ; and much that refers to his own con- 
dition and that of his times and his nation, we cannot 
wonder if we often, in them, stumble upon phrases 
and sentences which appear to fall in very imperfectly 
with our Christian view of our situation before God 
and of the dispositions of our hearts which belong 
to it. A verse in the Psalms which is brought under 
the Christian's notice, may often, at first sight, and 
before he aids himself by the means which the study 
of God's word affords, for discerning its meaning and 



THE PSALMS. 



87 



import more completely, seem to convey a very in- 
adequate notion of the nature of God's salvation in 
Christ, or affections very little conformed to Christ's 
commands. 

This would be a matter of small disturbance or 
difficulty, if we were to look upon this book as a 
mere human composition, tainted with the faults of 
the heart and mind of him who wrote it; but this, 
the expressions of our Lord and his Apostles, as well 
as the whole analogy of Scripture, forbid us to do: 
and the Church, directed by their authority, has, as we 
have said, adopted the whole of the language of this 
Book as her own, and has enjoined its use, without 
excepting any part, upon her children. The humble 
and confiding Christian is led to think, by the mode 
in which this part of our devotional offices is brought 
before him, that, if not in its plain and obvious sense, 
yet still in some deeper but not less certain signifi- 
cance, for which there exists a satisfactory warrant, 
all that is written in the Book of the Psalms is fit for 
his use in his habitual worship of God. 

To those who have accepted the ordinances of the 
Christian Church in this spirit of humble confidence 
and hope, it is always a grateful and satisfactory 
occurrence when, in the course of the Services of the 
Church, or in any other way, they have brought to 
their recollection any of those special passages of the 
New Testament which authorize and recommend this 
use of the Book of Psalms in our devotions ; and dis- 
close to us in some degree those less obvious meanings 



88 



SERMON VI. 



of David's words, those more recondite references, 
those remote anticipations, on which the Christian's 
interest in these hymns so much depends. Every 
Christian worshipper must, I think, have felt this 
satisfaction, when the dark parts of the Book of 
Psalms are, as it were, suddenly lighted up by a 
ray cast from the Gospel ; and must have felt grateful 
for the light and comfort thus, it may be at the 
moment unexpectedly, bestowed upon him. 

But if all Christian worshippers have reason to 
be grateful on such occasions, we, who assemble to 
worship in this place, have more specially a motive 
for such gratitude ; since we are called upon, by the 
devotional exercises which our situation here enjoins 
upon us, to accompany the Psalmist, month by month, 
in the course of his devotions, and to follow him in 
recurring cycles from the beginning to the close of 
his prayers and praises. It is a matter which very 
much concerns our religious comfort, and the satis- 
faction which we are to derive from our habitual 
worship, that we should be able to sympathize with 
the Psalms, in their most perfect and most Christian 
significance ; — and that we should bear in mind, as 
steadily and clearly as possible, how entirely they 
were sympathized in by the Apostles and first Teach- 
ers of the Christian world, and by our Blessed Lord 
himself while here on earth. And for this reason, I 
trust, that we all who are here, listen with pleasure, 
when our ears catch such passages of Scripture as 
that which I have taken for my text. It is one of 



THE PSALMS. 



89 



those in which the references which the Psalms con- 
tain to the dispensation of God by Christ, — references 
obscure and hidden, when the words were first de- 
livered, and not discerned till the time referred to 
had arrived, — are opened up and spread forth to our 
eyes ; and we are thus led to see, in the expressions 
of hope and trust which the Psalm contains, a depth 
and mightiness of Christian meaning, such as may 
make us rejoice whenever the words are brought to 
our lips by the course of our worship. 

The text contains an exposition of a portion of 
the 16th Psalm, delivered by St. Peter, immediately 
after the Holy Ghost had fallen upon the Apostles 
on the day of Pentecost ; and thus the very beginning 
of the teaching of Christ under this influence is based 
upon the Psalms of David. "For David," he says, 
(Acts ii. 25 — 28,) " speaketh concerning Him, I fore- 
saw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my 
right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore 
did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; more- 
over also my flesh shall rest in hope : because thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer 
thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made 
known to me the ways of life ; thou shalt make me 
full of joy with thy countenance." And then he goes 
on in the words of our text, (v. 29 — 31,) "Men 
and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the 
patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and 
his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore 
being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn 



90 



SERMON VI. 



with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, 
according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to 
sit on his throne ; he, seeing this before, spake of the 
resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in 
hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." And adds, 
(v. 32, 33,) " This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof 
we are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right 
hand of God exalted, and having received of the 
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed 
forth this, which ye now see and hear." And to the 
same effect does St. Paul, preaching at Antioch, refer 
to the same passage in the Psalms. Acts xiii. 34 — 37: 
" And as concerning that he raised him up from the 
dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said 
on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of 
David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, 
Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corrup- 
tion. For David, after he had served his own gene- 
ration by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid 
unto his fathers, and saw corruption : but he, whom 
God raised again, saw no corruption." We may note 
further also, that the preaching of St. Peter in our 
text contains a reference to another psalm ; for when 
he says that "he being a prophet, knew that God 
had sworn unto him, that of the fruit of his loins 
according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit 
upon his throne;" he doubtless refers to the 132nd 
Psalm, ver. 11, "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto 
David, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy 
throne ;" which passage again is also, in other parts 



THE PSALMS. 



91 



of the New Testament, brought forwards as desig- 
nating, according to the intention of God's Holy 
Spirit, that Anointed One who was to save men from 
their sins, Christ the Lord. 

I have adduced these passages, in order that we 
may remind ourselves how well suited the Psalms of 
David are to occupy their place in our Christian de- 
votions, since they are quoted familiarly and upon all 
occasions by the first teachers of Christian faith, under 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But we may go 
further still; for our Blessed Lord himself in his 
earthly teaching habitually referred his hearers to the 
Psalms, as full of passages in which he himself was 
spoken of. Thus, in his teaching in the Temple 
after his entry into Jerusalem, he applies to himself 
those verses in the 118th Psalm, ver. 22: "The stone 
which the builders refused is become the head stone 
of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is 
marvellous in our eyes ;" an adoption of the passage 
in its Christian significance which is recorded both by 
St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke; and is again 
repeated by St. Peter in his answer to the High 
Priest, on occasion of the cure of the lame man, in the 
4th chapter of the Acts, ver. 10 : " Be it known unto 
you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the 
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, 
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth 
this man stand here before you whole. This is the 
stone which was set at nought of you builders, which 
is become the head of the corner." And again, in the 



92 



SERMON VI. 



same course of preaching of our Saviour in the 
Temple, he refers to the 110th Psalm, as irresistibly 
showing that David, in his expressions of hope in 
God, and in his declarations of the strength and 
power which he was to receive through His favour, 
could not intend to refer to himself alone, but must 
needs have been directed by the Holy Spirit to look 
forwards to a greater kingdom and a higher throne 
than those which were given to him. "The Lord 
said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until 
I make thine enemies thy footstool." If David call 
him Lord — him to whom this promise of victory was 
thus given — if David, favoured and exalted by God, 
and set by him to rule over his people with supreme 
power, call Him Lord, how is he also his son ? From 
this question, there must have dawned upon the minds 
of those who listened well to our Lord's teaching 
the perception that these declarations of the royal 
Psalmist, though always looked upon as full of a 
prophetical import, and pointing to a wide and glo- 
rious future, were now to receive a fuller significance 
than had been dreamt of ; the largest and most lofty 
promises which were made to the royal race of David 
being amply fulfilled in the kingdom of Christ. And 
according to this view does St. Peter cite this psalm 
in the discourse of which the text is part. St. Paul 
carries on the interpretation of the same psalm in the 
first Epistle to the Corinthians. We are there told 
who are the enemies that are to be put under his 
feet. "He shall put down (1 Cor. xv. 24) all rule 



THE PSALMS. 



93 



and all authority and power ; and the last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is death ; for he must reign (as the 
Psalmist had foretold) till he hath put all enemies 
under his feet; and thus the promise which was de- 
livered under the Old Covenant in this (110th) Psalm 
(ver. 2) " The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength 
out of Zion : rule thou in the midst of thine enemies," 
is echoed, after many centuries, by the clearer and 
loftier strain of the servant of Christ, in that glorious 
exclamation of triumph, " death, where is thy sting ! 
grave, where is thy victory ! " 

But though in every part of the New Testament 
we find the language of the Psalms adopted and 
interpreted so as to apply to the dispensation of God 
in Christ, and thus commended to our use, as an 
expression of agreement and sympathy with all 
those to whom the Gospel has come, its value and 
significance for us does not in fact begin with the 
time of the manifestation of Christ on the earth, 
but goes back to an earlier period still. For as there 
were those who believed in the coming of Christ 
even before Christ came ; so did these persons find 
in the language of the Psalms, ground and confirma- 
tion for their hopes, and expressions of their faith 
and trust. And we, employing these same expressions 
to give utterance to our faith and hope in Christ, 
thus express our community of feeling with all who 
in all ages have called upon the name of the Lord, 
and believed in the government by which he guides 
the world through all its changes, and supports his 



94 



SERMON VI. 



true servants in all conditions and times. Thus, in 
the very passage of the Gospel, of which we have 
just spoken, it is taken for granted, as an acknow- 
ledged truth, that the psalm there quoted, (the 110th,) 
refers to the Messiah. " You often speak,'" our Lord 
says, " of the Messiah who is to come. You say he 
is to be the son of David. How then does David 
in this psalm call him Lord ?" It was not that they 
doubted whether this psalm spoke of him, the An- 
ointed of God, who was to sit on the throne of his 
father David ; but they had not such a view of the 
divine nature of his person, and the spiritual cha- 
racter of his rule, as might lead them to a true 
solution of such perplexities as that which our Lord 
here propounds to them. 

And again, in that procession of Jesus to the 
Temple which had just preceded that teaching of 
which we are now speaking, the multitude had in 
like manner expressed their acceptance of Jesus as 
the Messiah by filling the air, as he passed along 
in the manner foretold by the prophet, with the 
exclamations of the Psalmist — "Ilosanna — Save, Lord, 
we beseech thee. Blessed be he that cometh in the 
name of the Lord ;" as David had prayed in that 
very psalm in which he spoke of the stone which 
the builders rejected. (Ps. cxviii. 25, 26.) And when 
we find that the common people had, ready upon 
their tongues, these expressions of the Psalms, in 
their application to the promised Messiah, we cannot 
but deem it most natural and suitable that those 



THE PSALMS. 



95 



devout persons who had been more especially em- 
ploying their thoughts in looking forwards to this 
great event in the dealings of God's Providence, 
should, when they saw the dawning of that day for 
which they had watched so long, express their emotions 
in language tinged with the recollection of that Book 
of Psalms which had so often sustained them in their 
aspirations towards the future. Thus when Zacha- 
rias the father of John the Baptist was filled with 
the Holy Ghost (Luke i. 68), he prophesied, saying, 
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath 
visited and redeemed his people ; and hath raised 
up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his 
servant David;" manifestly bearing in mind what is 
said in the 132d Psalm (ver. 17) : "There will I make 
the horn of David to bud; I have ordained a lamp 
for mine Anointed." And in the other expressions of 
this song of Zacharias, and of Symeon, and in the hymn 
of the Virgin Mary, there are manifest recollections 
of those expressions of gratitude and joy which are 
so common in the Psalms that I need not multiply 
my citations of them — such as those in the 98th 
Psalm, "The Lord hath made known his salvation: 
his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight 
of the heathen ; He hath remembered his mercy and 
his truth toward the house of Israel, and all the 
ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our 
God :" and again, in the 105th Psalm : " He hath 
remembered his covenant for ever; the word which 
he commanded to a thousand generations: which 



96 



SERMON VI. 



covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto 
Isaac." These, as you will at once recollect, are 
almost the very expressions employed by those who, 
when Christ appeared upon earth, first hailed the 
dawn of his kingdom; and their songs of praise 
delivered at the time of Christ's very birth, may be 
considered as the first hymns of the Christian Church ; 
and, accepted by the Church as such, have their place 
assigned them in our public devotions. And by the 
constant use of the Psalms from which all those who 
believed in the promised Saviour who was to come 
of the lineage of David, drew the expressions of their 
hope, we connect ourselves with that which we may 
almost call the Christian Church before the coming of 
Christ; — the assemblage and constant succession of 
those who, following David, believed that God would 
send to his Israel, the Saviour, the Anointed King, 
the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, in whom 
both Jews and Gentiles should have ground for trust 
and hope, for gratitude and joy. 

But there is yet one other view of this matter 
which we must not overlook. In order to see fully 
the claim which this Book of Psalms has upon the 
thoughts and hearts of us the worshippers of God, 
rescued and preserved by his Saviour Christ from 
the enemies whom he has overcome, we must look 
at the more dark and awful side of this warfare, and 
at the notices which we find in the Psalms, of the 
pain and woe which are parts of the Divine dispen- 
sation. As we ought to have perpetually brought to 



THE PSALMS. 



97 



our thoughts, again and again, the death of Christ 
upon the Cross and the sufferings which for our sake 
he endured upon earth, we can never, without the deep- 
est interest, fall in with those passages of the Psalms 
which, as we assuredly know from the Evangelists 
and Apostles, point to and describe the passion of 
our Lord. With what awe and humiliation must 
we read the 22nd Psalm ; in which the Psalmist, 
while he describes his own griefs and pains, delivers 
a most wonderful prophecy of the sufferings of Him 
who died for us, the Just for the unjust. "They 
pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my 
bones : they look and stare upon me. They part my 
garments among them, and cast lots upon my ves- 
ture." (ver. 16 — 18.) And yet again in the same Psalm : 
" All they that see me laugh me to scorn : they shoot 
out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted 
in God that he would deliver him: let him deliver 
him if he will have him." (ver. 7, 8.) And still more 
especially is this Psalm rendered awful and holy in 
our eyes by the manner in which its first words were 
appropriated by our Blessed Lord himself when in the 
extreme moment of his mortal agony he cried with a 
loud voice "My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me ! " 

And here again, another passage in this dread 
event occurs to our recollection : when, as St. John 
tells us (xix. 28), " Jesus, knowing that all things 
were now accomplished, that the Scripture might 
be fulfilled, saith, I thirst : " — that Scripture, namely, 
w. c. s. H 



98 



SERMON VI. 



which we have in the 69th Psalm, in which it is said, 
(ver. 22,) " They gave me gall for my meat ; and in my 
thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Such passages, 
thus connected with the circumstances of Christ's 
death and passion, not by any mere imagination of 
ours, but by the authority of Scripture itself, give an 
interest, deep and touching, though dark and solemn, 
to the Psalms which express the profoundest affliction 
and pain and grief; and make us feel that these too, 
are most fitting parts of Christian worship. 

In the passages which I have mentioned, it is 
a circumstance which may, I think, well relieve and 
satisfy our minds, and excite a feeling of gratitude, 
that the application of the Psalms of David to express 
such feelings as belong to the Christian's heart is not 
a device of ours, but is a part of that teaching which 
we receive from Christ himself and the holy Apostles. 

And this is true too of those passages, which, if 
we were left to follow the course of our own unas- 
sisted thoughts, we might find it most difficult to 
dwell upon with satisfaction. Such is the passage 
which immediately follows the verse we have just 
quoted from the 69th Psalm (ver. 22) : " Let their table 
become a snare before them, and that which should 
have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. 
Let their eyes be darkened that they see not : let 
their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in 
their tents." And again, the like terrible declarations 
in the 109th Psalm (ver. 8): "Let his days be few, 
and let another take his office," and that which there 



THE PSALMS. 



99 



follows. We are, I say, relieved from the awful task 
of finding in our own thoughts an application of these 
terrible words, by finding them already applied, by 
the Apostles themselves, to those Jews who, in the 
blindness and hardness of their hearts, rejected and 
crucified the Son of God ; and particularly to Judas, 
whose treachery was the principal instrument of their 
malice. Thus St. Paul says to the Romans (xi. 7) : 
" Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for : 
an elect portion only hath obtained it, and the rest 
were blinded, — according to what David saith, Let 
their table be made a snare and a trap and a stum- 
blingblock, and a recompense unto them : Let their 
eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow 
down their back alway." And in the first chapter 
of the Acts, we read how Peter applied one of these 
passages to Judas, in nearly the same manner in 
which he speaks in our text (Acts i. 16 and 20) : 
" Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have 
been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth 
of David spake before concerning Judas. . . For it is 
written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation 
be desolate, and no man dwell therein, and his bishop- 
rick let another take." 

Thus we are directed to read these passages as 
terrible declarations of the anger of God, and of the 
utter ruin and destruction which hangs over those 
whom He condemns; and especially of his anger 
against those who, with wicked hands and treach- 
erous hearts, crucified the Lord of Life. Yet still, 

H2 



100 



SERMON VI. 



there remains one question for us regarding this 
matter; and that, one of no small consequence for 
us. In what temper, in what spirit, are our thoughts 
to go along with these dreadful words? Are we to 
follow them as if they expressed a wish in which we 
are to share, an imprecation in which we are to join? 
Are we to endeavour to testify the strength of our 
love of Christ, by the vehemence of our execrations 
against his murderers? Are we to devote them to 
destruction as if we were holy persons condemning 
abominable sinners ? surely in a far other temper 
must we think of the crucifixion of our Lord ; with 
a far different kind of detestation, of those who nailed 
Him to the cross ! For why was He there ? What 
cause was it that led Him through all the paths of 
human agony to that most bitter death ? What was 
it that did this, but we and our iniquities? It was 
our sins that He bare in his body on that accursed 
tree ; and still, even now, when we sin against God, 
we crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to 
open shame. How then shall we escape that terrible 
condemnation of which we have spoken, except we 
put away from us that old man, which, with its lusts 
and transgressions, was busy in the work of the cru- 
cifixion of Christ ? Or what can we see in the solemn 
strength of such expressions as we have been speaking 
of, except a manifestation of the awful nature of sin, 
which made that precious sacrifice necessary, and for 
whose dire effects God's Providence found no remedy, 
except through that wonderful scheme of salvation, of 



THE PSALMS. 



101 



which these dark utterances of the Psalmist, through 
the Holy Spirit, foretold some of the circumstances? 
When we say, "Let his house be desolate, let his 
eyes be blinded, let his heart be hardened," do we 
say this as desiring that this should be so with regard 
to any of God's creatures ? Far from it ! We ex- 
press in this way our solemn submission to that dis- 
pensation of mercy, by which, through the craft and 
wickedness of men, the salvation of God was brought 
upon earth ; though this dispensation be marked with 
gloom through condemnation of those who rejected 
it, and of those who still reject it. We revive in our 
minds the perception of the depravity of that sinful 
nature in which we share, and with regard to which 
those dire expressions of Divine wrath are applicable. 
We say, Let it be so, Lord, since so thy wisdom and 
holiness have decreed, that there shall be, in the 
world which thou governest and judgest, this solemn 
separation of the good from the evil, the righteous 
from the wicked. Teach us to feel the force of this 
separation ; teach us to see the awful manifestation 
of its reality and greatness in that suffering and death 
of thy Son which was brought about by the working 
of the principle of sin, vile and foul and fierce, in the 
heart of man : and though this principle of sin clings 
so close to us, and will not be put away by any efforts of 
ours, do Thou, by thy aid, enable us to cast it under, 
to reject it, to trample upon it, to look upon it as our 
enemy as it is thine, and to assent to thy will, which 
dooms it to utter destruction and endless punishment. 



102 



SERMON VI. 



And thus may we, by God's blessing, derive from 
these, as from the other portions of the Psalms, profit 
and comfort, consolation and hope. And as we thus 
see, in those passages which I have referred to, a 
declaration of the hatefulness of sin, and of the ruin 
which follows in its train, so may we ever turn from 
these to those other passages, or rather combine with 
them those others, in which not the terrors, but the 
hopes, not the threatenings, but the promises, not the 
curses, but the blessings of God's judgments are con- 
tained. Let us recollect that the darkest of the pas- 
sages to which we have referred, are succeeded by 
expressions of trust and comfort :— that amid the 
memory of the pierced hands and feet, and the parted 
garment of Him who has done with earthly things, 
we are taught to say, (xxii. 19,) "But be not thou 
far from me, Lord; thou art my succour, haste 
thou to help me." That after those have been spoken 
of who are to fall from one wickedness to another, 
and to be wiped out of the book of the living, we 
have to add, " When I am poor and in heaviness, thy 
help, God, shall lift me up." (Psalm Lxix. 30.) Or 
in another place, (Psalm cix. 20,) " Deal with me, 
God, according to thy name, for sweet is thy mercy." 

Finally, let us remember, that as we have a con- 
cern in these expressions of dejection and affliction, 
which point to the great sacrifice made necessary by 
sin, so we have a concern also in the victory over sin, 
which was then achieved. Let us recollect that we 
are speaking of a matter in which we ourselves are 



THE PSALMS. 



103 



deeply interested, when we use such language as is 
quoted in the text, — " Thou shalt not leave his soul 
in hell, nor shalt thou suffer thy Holy One to see cor- 
ruption :" — that because that soul was not left in hell, 
and that Holy One did not see corruption, we may 
emerge from the blackness of despair, may find relief 
and hope in the depth of our affliction, may join in 
the strains of gratitude and joy, as well as of peni- 
tence and humility, which the Church has in all ages 
uttered, and may partake of the ordinances by which 
the sacrifice of our Saviour is commemorated, with 
a trust that, through that great offering, the curse is 
put away from us, — that we may share in the true 
Temple-worship of the rescued Zion, and join .the 
Psalms which shall be prolonged through all ages, 
in the eternal city whose foundations are in the 
heavens. 



SERMON VII. 



(1843. Michaelmas Term.) 

Isaiah XII. 6. 

Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion ; for great is the 
Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. 

rp HE Jewish people, as we perceive from all their 
history and from all their Scriptures, mani- 
fested on every occasion a most earnest and unfailing 
national spirit. Their love for their own race in 
comparison with strangers, for their own country 
in comparison with other lands, — their zeal in pro- 
moting the prosperity of their nation, in repelling 
its enemies, in resisting the violation of its institu- 
tions, — were most vehement and determined. In its 
adversities they sat down and wept ; and hung upon 
the willows their instruments of rejoicing ; and when 
they thought of times of relief and returning wel- 
fare, such as are referred to in the prophecy from 
which our text is taken, shouts of triumph rose in 
their breasts, and they were ready to respond to 
the exhortation, Cry aloud, inhabitant of Zion. 

And this strong and enduring national spirit is 
every where enforced and confirmed by the Teachers 



NATIONALITY. 



105 



and Prophets who speak to them with the authority 
of God. Those who adhere faithfully to the tra- 
ditional ordinances of their race, even when different 
from the Jewish laws, are commended and held up 
to them for imitation — " Will ye not receive instruc- 
tion to hearken unto my words, saith the Lord ? The 
words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he com- 
manded his sons, are performed; they obey their 
father's commandment, but ye hearkened not unto 
me. Therefore Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not 
want a man to stand before me for ever ; but behold 
I will bring upon Juclah and upon the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced 
against them." 

But if there thus appear to be, from the account 
of the sacred teacher, something laudable in general 
in a fidelity to national ordinances and a regard for 
traditional laws, there were in the case of the Jewish, 
far stronger reasons than in any other ancient nation, 
for valuing and rejoicing in the national existence, — 
for reverencing and adhering to the laws which they 
had received from their fathers. For they knew that 
their laws had been delivered to the nation by the 
hand of God himself, and were not human enact- 
ments, but His Laws : — they knew that they had had 
constant manifestations of His continued care of 
the nation, in signs and wonders wrought for their 
admonition, and in a succession of teachers, who 
exhorted them, enforcing their lessons with more than 
human power : — they knew that the divine super- 



106 



SERMON VII. 



intendence thus exercised over the nation was carried 
on with a view to some great design of Providence, 
which was perpetually spoken of by their inspired 
teachers as filling the future with images of restora- 
tion and gladness and triumph, of peace and hope 
and joy. The wolf was to dwell with the lamb ; the 
leopard was to lie down with the kid. It was said, 
" They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
mountain. There shall be a root of Jesse which shall 
stand for an ensign to the people : to it shall the 
Gentiles seek ; and his rest shall be glorious." And 
the national gratitude and exultation were most na- 
turally and fitly claimed for their future deliverance 
and blessing. This is the purport of the chapter from 
which the text is taken, (ver. 4) : " In that day ye 
shall say, Praise the Lord : call upon his name, de- 
clare his doings among the people, make mention that 
his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord : for he 
hath done excellent things ; this is known in all the 
earth. Cry and shout thou inhabitant of Zion : for 
great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." 

This deep and earnest national spirit, this trust 
in the national existence, this belief in the future 
destinies of the nation, remained unshaken in the 
Babylonish captivity, to which the prophecy of our 
text primarily refers. It revived with fresh force 
on the return to the beloved land of the ancient 
promise ; it did not shrink nor fail under the cruel- 
ties and terrors of the Maccabean times ; it burnt, 
like fire beneath ashes, under the domination of 



NATIONALITY. 



107 



Rome; till the time came for the true interpreta- 
tion of those promises by which the national spirit 
had been so long supported, and for the unfolding 
of that design of Providence for which the nation 
had so long been preserved. 

The first disclosure of the nature of this providen- 
tial design, was, as we know, accompanied by a severe 
shock to the national convictions and prejudices, 
which had so long been held and cherished. He who 
came to accomplish what was prefigured and pre- 
pared by the worship of the Temple, uttered words 
which amazed and disturbed his hearers, when he 
said, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this 
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 
When it appeared that though salvation was of the 
Jews, it was also for the Gentiles, and that the privileges 
provided for the peculiar people were to be extended 
to all the nations of the earth who accepted them 
when offered ; — when the Jew, if he turned away from 
this new aspect of the hoped-for salvation, was declared 
to be rejected, while the stranger was accepted; — the 
Jewish mind was astonished, confounded, offended, 
turned to bitterness. It appeared to the Jew as if all 
the grand and sublime imagery of the past, and the 
pictures of the future, drawn by the hand of God him- 
self, were to be rolled away like an array of bright but 
unsubstantial clouds, which he had taken for solid 
things. His patriot pride, his pious trust, his rules of 
life, his bonds of union with his countrymen, were all 
assailed and infringed. Even if he embraced the offered 



108 



SERMON VII. 



salvation, the transition from his old to his new views 
had in it much of perplexity and marvel at his own 
state, — much of grief and pain for the disappointed 
hopes and endangered condition of his countrymen. 
You will recollect St. Paul's earnest utterance of these 
feelings (Rom. ix.) : / say the truth in Christ, I lie 
not ; my conscience bearing me witness ; I have great 
heaviness, continual sorrow in my heart. My brethren 
the Jewish nation appear to be cut off from God. So 
much does this move me, that I could wish that my- 
self were accursed by separation from Christ, for 
them, my kinsmen according to the flesh : Who are 
Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the 
glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law 
and the promises ; whose are the fathers ; and of 
whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. And 
though he denies altogether that the event is as 
though the word of God had taken none effect, it is 
plain that he looked upon such a persuasion, as that 
to which his Jewish hearers must naturally be led, till 
they had obtained a more complete and enlarged 
view of God's purposes, and of the nature of his sal- 
vation, than had entered into the previous contem- 
plation of the most wise and pious of those who now 
looked forward to the consolation of Israel. 

The change was indeed great. With the coming 
of Christ, and with the proclamation of the glad 
tidings of salvation through Him alone for all the 
world, for Jews and Gentiles alike, ended all the 
special purposes of the Jewish nationality. The de- 



NATIONALITY. 



109 



signs of God which had for so many ages required the 
Jews to be a separate people, kept apart from all 
others, the guardians of God's temple, the ministers 
of his worship, the depositaries of his prophecies, 
were now fulfilled ; and their office was oyer. The 
pride and triumph which they had indulged, at being 
the object of so many of God's peculiar favours, now 
became misplaced and perverted feelings in those 
who had refused his greatest favour, the spiritual 
reign of his Son. This was a government which now 
superseded the ancient institutions and authorities of 
the Hebrew race : the earthly nationality of the Jews 
was rendered void by the wider spiritual communion 
which united all the followers of the promised, pre- 
dicted, and prefigured Messiah of the Jewish faith. 
The national existence of the Jews in the land pro- 
mised to them, given to them, restored to them long 
ago, was no longer an object in the eyes of God's 
Providence. They were no longer to expect that the 
arm of Jehovah would uphold them against their 
enemies. The Holy One of Israel was no longer in 
the midst of them. They who would not readily 
learn this lesson, were taught its truth by most bitter 
calamities, which ended in the destruction of the 
Temple and its worship, the nation and its city. The 
glory which had so long hung over Zion was black- 
ened ; the covenant was annulled. The people were 
scattered, and the nation which had been the special 
people of God was repudiated, removed, destroyed, so 
that it was no more a nation. 



110 



SERMON VII. 



The early Christians, then, even those who were 
originally Jews, had to give up their Jewish natural 
feelings, the patriot pride and affection and joy and 
hope which the children of Jerusalem had so long 
felt. For them, so far as the continuance of the 
former feeling was concerned, there was an end of 
nationality. The ties which had connected them with 
a particular land and made it their country, were 
broken by their new faith, and dissolved by the 
course of events. They were citizens, for the pre- 
sent, of a heavenly city only. Nor did they find a 
new nationality when they thus lost their old one. 
They ceased to be Jews, but they did not become 
citizens of any new state, so as to feel towards it the 
love and zeal which constitute patriotism. Those 
who ceased to be Jews, did not become, in this sense, 
Greeks or Romans : those who were Romans, no 
longer fostered the Roman's belief in the institutions 
and destinies of Rome, as the highest object of human 
reverence and confidence. They ceased to be citizens 
of Jerusalem, which had passed away ; they were not 
merely the citizens of the city of seven hills, which 
called itself eternal : they were the citizens of a truly 
eternal city, whose maker and builder is God. For 
them, therefore, the feelings of patriotism, the ties of 
nationality, no longer had the same kind of religious 
force which such things had had before they became 
Christians. The long familiar expressions of love 
towards Zion, — of a resolution to do good unto Jeru- 
salem,— of fellow-feeling with Israel,— lost their signi- 



NATIONALITY. 



Ill 



ficance as applicable to earthly objects ; and the early 
Christian's sympathy with those who had used such 
language in such an application, was necessarily cold 
and distant. 

But yet a little reflection will satisfy us that this 
was merely a transient state of Christian feeling, not a 
permanent distinction of the Christian character. It is 
the business of Christianity, in this, as in other respects, 
not to eradicate, but to exalt and purify, our natural 
affection. The sentiment of nationality, the affection 
of patriotism, are too essential parts of our nature, 
too deeply rooted, too universally felt and cherished, 
to be rejected as mere errors and delusions. Religion 
can no more command us to look upon them in that 
light, than she can condemn, as perversions and de- 
lusions, the ties of family and the affections of kindred. 
Our country is but our family in a larger sense : our 
fellow-citizens are our brethren in blood and habits 
and history : and our religion, which commands us to 
love and to do good to all men, gives its commands a 
more peculiar urgency with regard to those who are 
thus near to us. Among the early Christians, such 
feelings were not, in fact, suspended, but converted 
into a regard for that religious community to which 
they belonged, and which subsisted distinct in the 
bosom of the political society. They were com- 
manded to do good to all men, but especially to 
those who were of the household of faith. The Church 
to which they belonged was their country, their na- 
tion, the object of their patriotic love and confidence 



112 



SERMON VII. 



and hope. Yet even in this state of transition Chris- 
tian teaching always inculcated reverence for national 
laws and institutions and governments; — they were 
described as the ministers of God for good : — ho- 
nour to the king was combined with the fear of God 
and the love of men, even when a Tiberius, a Cali- 
gula, a Nero was the representative of earthly ma- 
jesty : — and the Christian gladly gave his services to 
the state, so far as they could be given consistently 
with the service due to his heavenly Master. His 
want of an entire interest in the national concerns, 
and of a full direction of his affections towards his 
country, belonged to that intermediate condition in 
which old things were indeed passed away, but all 
things were not yet become new. 

And when at length the state became a Christian 
community ; — when the worship of the true God was 
once more offered up by the public authority ; — when 
the Church was recognized with reverence and affec- 
tion by those who governed the country; then all 
impediments were removed which interfered with the 
Christian's entire and earnest love of his nation. For 
a Christian state, a Christian may well have a zealous 
and affectionate care. He owes to it more than the 
citizen of any other state can owe to his. From it, 
from the Church which it acknowledges and protects, 
from the education which its habits and institutions 
supply, he has received the unfolding of his own 
thoughts, his instruction in the faith and fear of God. 
The name of country contains for him all that it con- 



NATIONALITY. 



113 



tains for any other, the most favoured of men, and 
contains all in a higher form, with a greater and 
more especial blessing. The citizen of a Christian 
state, as of any other state, owes to his country the 
dear bonds of family love and early nurture, the dig- 
nity of earthly citizenship, the share which he has in 
the history of the past, in all that it has done to 
ennoble and enlighten the children of the present day ; 
he owes to it the influence of wholesome laws, and of 
traditional observances, by which laws are implanted 
in the hearts of men: — he ow T es to it security and 
enjoyment, stability and progress, the love of his 
countrymen, the respect of strangers, a place in any 
advances which men may make from evil to good, 
and from good to better. These benefits, indeed, as 
we have said, every citizen of a well ordered state 
owes to his country : but to the Christian, all these 
benefits are elevated into blessings of a larger and 
diviner kind. Those who are bound to him by the 
tender ties of human love are with him fellow-heirs 
of an eternal inheritance ; the unfolding of thought 
and mental activity is the manifestation of eternal 
truth and boundless hope : his nature is an instru- 
ment in the hands of Providence to perform the work 
which God works from the beginning unto the end : 
all glory and beauty which hang about the past 
national history, — all dignity of the national character, 
all power, and wealth, and dominion, — are indeed 
matters to rejoice at, because they show that his 
nation is designed to play a great part in the designs 
w. c. s. I 



114 



SERMON VII. 



of Providence , — that she is set up as a fountain of 
blessing among the nations. And so deeming of her, 
and feeling himself a part of her, a partaker in all 
she does, in all she enjoys, in her good report and in 
her evil report, in her obedience and in her sins, he 
cannot but give to her his anxious love, his deepest 
sympathy and interest. The Christian, under such 
circumstances, is the most zealous and affectionate of 
patriots. His nation, its Church with its State, are 
to him his terrestrial Zion, his strong rock and holy 
hill upon earth: and in this sense of the terms, he 
has a fellow-feeling with all the most energetic ex- 
pressions of the love of the children of Israel for 
their land, which occur in the ancient Scriptures. 
He is ready to cry out and shout, recollecting that 
he is an inhabitant of Zion, and trusting that the 
Holy One of Israel is in the midst of her. 

This then, my brethren, should be our feeling, 
citizens as we are of a Christian State, living in a 
land which has inherited no ordinary amount of 
Christian blessings, and belonging to a nation, which 
shows, if any can show, by its history and condition, 
that it is intended by God as a powerful instrument 
for good among the nations of the earth. From us 
are due to our country, as to the earthly mother 
of us all, love and reverence, confidence and aid. 
We are called upon to rejoice in her joys, to grieve 
at her sorrows, to share in her life and activity. It is 
our part, as far as may be, to sympathize in the 
sentiments which she, at the various crises of her 



NATIONALITY. 



115 



history, has put forth, as her thoughts, her feelings, 
solemnly and deliberately entertained, recorded and 
enjoined upon us her children. The events that she 
looks upon as providential, as glorious, as happy 
as blessed, we too are called upon to train ourselves 
to look upon in the same light ; — at any rate, not 
lightly or readily to think them otherwise. The pro- 
gress of national institutions and laws and powers 
to which she owes what she is, we are summoned 
to enter into, to work for and with, to carry out 
with all our strength and all our will, to their ap- 
pointed beneficial ends. And if there be in her cir- 
cumstances aught of malign or unhappy aspect, that 
too we are bound to look at with concern and serious- 
ness, but also with courage and hope ; not as if, like 
the Roman, we trusted proudly in the fortune of the 
State ; but believing that Providence, who has lifted 
us so high, will not abandon us if we are true to 
ourselves ; and that the inhabitants of Zion may still 
cry out and shout, believing still, as of yore, that 
the Holy One is in the midst of her. 

But if all the citizens of our Christian state are 
thus called upon to consider their hearts and their 
hands as due to the cause and the service of their 
country, — we cannot but feel that upon us, who are 
now gathered in this place, these duties press with 
a peculiar force. We are here as the children of 
one of the great institutions by which the past and 
the future are bound together in this land; and by 
which the religious constitution of the country is 

12 



116 



SERMON VII. 



connected with its intellectual and moral cultivation, 
We cannot ourselves forget that we have an eminent 
place in the great body of the nation, when we recol- 
lect that year after year we send forth, into many 
corners of the land, those who are specially ordained 
to remind men of their earthly duties, their eternal 
hopes, and the national ordinances by which both 
these are bound upon their hearts and minds ; — 
when we recollect that year after year men go forth, 
full of the thoughts and feelings they have gathered 
among us, to take their places in the administration 
of law and justice in various forms, or in the great 
council of the nation, or by the side of the throne 
itself ;— when we recollect that at intervals of a few 
years some more special ceremonial often comes to 
remind us of the dignities which the nation willingly 
concedes to us, — and that at some happy time, even 
the august presence of that loved and honoured 
head in which the national majesty is personified and 
embodied may beam upon us a recognition of our 
elevated share in national duties and prospects ; — 
when we recollect all this, we cannot but feel that 
we are most emphatically called upon to give to our 
country the glad aid and cordial love which is due 
from those who are so identified with it, who are by 
it so favoured and honoured, so trusted and regarded. 

The time will not allow me to dwell further 
on this duty, nor to attempt to press upon you the 
various forms which it assumes, in its bearing upon 
each of us in our several positions. This one remark 



NATIONALITY. 



117 



only I would add ; — if we, who belong to these insti- 
tutions, are specially bound to national duties, then 
the period of life at which we come here may be 
considered as the time especially suited to renew 
in us a sense of such duties. Hitherto, it may be, 
you have thought of your duties but as duties to 
your God, to your family, to yourselves. You have 
done well. But the time is now come when you 
must think also of your duties to your country. Not 
only for your own sake, but for hers, avoid drawing- 
down the wrath of God by sin and disobedience, im- 
purity, and hardheartedness. Not only for your own 
sake, but for hers, foster and cherish all your better 
and nobler faculties; pray to God that he will illu- 
mine in you what is dark, raise and support what 
is low. Love the temples of our Zion because they 
are hers ; and for her sake, as well as for your own, 
pray that the Holy One may ever be in the midst 
of her. 

And let us, upon this occasion in particular, pray 
that he may be in the midst of us; that he may 
sanctify and make efficacious to us the ordinance 
in which we are about to be engaged ; — that he may 
enable us, through it, to find pardon of our sins; 
peace of mind, and hope and trust in Him; and a 
supply of his refreshing aid, through which we may 
perform, with a cheerful heart and a clear spirit, the 
various tasks which fall to us, whether as individuals, 
as members of this College, or of the nation. 



SERMON VIII. 



(1844. Lent Term.) 



Philippians III. 13, 14. 

Brethren, I count not myself to ham apprehended: but this 
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, 
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I 
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus. 

TPHESE words occur in the account of himself which 
St. Paul gives to his Philippian disciples, not 
only in order to engage them to confidence and sub- 
mission, by shewing the grounds of his authority as 
their Christian teacher, but also in order to lead them 
to imitate him in aspiring to the higher degrees of 
Christian perfection. He himself, he told them, had 
never rested satisfied with temporal privileges, with 
worldly considerations ; he had zealously sought to up- 
hold the cause of truth ; at first, with mistaken zeal ; 
afterwards, when his spiritual eye was opened, with 
the unwearied and unlimited devotion of all his powers 
to the task ; and whatever progress he had thus made 
towards the proper end of his being, he was still, he 



PRESSING FORWARD. 



119 



declared, labouring onwards and upwards with un- 
abated exertions. In the earlier part of the chapter 
he had spoken of his earlier life: as a Jew distin- 
guished by the clearness of his descent (ver. 4), the 
strictness of his doctrines, the purity of his life, a 
Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee brought up at 
the feet of Gamaliel, blameless in the matters of the 
law ; he had been, so long as he remained under the 
law of Moses, full of a zeal for that law which had 
been approved and sanctioned by the highest religious 
authorities among the Jews. When Jesus, whom he 
persecuted, had called to him with an audible voice, 
and had shone in upon his heart, his aims were 
changed, but his earnest and eager spirit remained. 
All the things which he had previously valued, he 
then counted but loss on account of the more excel- 
lent value of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, (ver. 8). 
For his sake, he says, I lost and disregarded every- 
thing, that I might belong to him. When I had learnt 
how worthless was the righteousness which I could 
attain to by the aid of the law, my strong desire was 
to win Christ, so that I might be found in him, and 
have (ver. 9) the righteousness which is attained through 
faith in Christ, the righteousness which God gives to 
such faith. My desire was, he says, to know him, 
and to have a share in him : to be admitted to the 
fellowship of his sufferings (v. 10), to be made con- 
formable to his death ; so that I might know the power 
of his resurrection, as well as the bitterness of his 
passion ; — so that I might by any means, if possible, 



120 



SERMON VXIL 



attain to the resurrection of the just, of which he was 
the first-fruits. This I have been earnestly desiring, 
labouring for, praying for, during the long course of my 
Christian life. From the time when I fell to the ground 
on the way to Damascus, even to the present hour when 
I address you from my bonds at Home, these have been 
my objects, these my aspirations, this the occupation 
of my thoughts. Do you, my disciples, think of me, 
your pastor, as of one with a mind ever full of these 
things. Think thus of me, and therefore attend to 
my teaching: think thus of me, and let the same 
spirit take possession of your hearts. But think not 
of me as of one who places himself in a fixed posi- 
tion as a model for your imitation. Think not of 
me, as one who deems his task done and his progress 
ended ; or who looks with complacency and acquies- 
cence upon the point he has reached. Far from it, 
I say all this, not (ver. 12) as though I had already 
attained, or were already perfect ; but I still press 
onward and follow after perfection; that I may, if 
possible, attain to that object for which my Saviour 
drew me to him ;— that I may apprehend that for 
which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. And 
he then still further unfolds this thought in the words 
of the text. Brethren, I count not myself to have 
apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those 
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto 
those things which are before, I press forward to 
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus, 



PRESSING FORWARD. 



121 



When the Apostle here tells us that he forgets 
the things which are behind, it is evidently his mean- 
ing, that he does not dwell upon any past condition 
of his spiritual being with a complacent and satisfied 
spirit, as something in which he could acquiesce, and 
be content to ascend to no higher degree of perfec- 
tion. And since this pressing forward, of which he 
speaks, is manifestly intended as a description of his 
internal working, which is not to end but with his 
earthly life, it is plain that we must conceive the mark 
towards which he presses, in this lively image, as no 
mark placed upon earth : — for then he might have 
come up to it, and passed by it, and looked back upon 
it, — but as a goal placed beyond the boundary of this 
mortal life ; as a mark eternal in the heavens ; as a 
mark, in tending to which, a man must follow thither 
where our Saviour Christ is gone before ; and there- 
fore a mark most naturally and fitly termed the mark 
of the prize of his high calling, — of the high calling 
by which God, through Christ Jesus, has called his 
true followers to receive, in the heavenly mansions, 
the prize of eternal life. 

This habit of the soul, this constant progress and 
continual effort towards a higher degree of perfection, 
thus described by St. Paul, and by him urged upon 
the Philippians for their sympathy and imitation, is 
no less worthy of our approval and adoption. The 
exhortation in which it is recommended, is not one 
of special, temporary, or local application : it belongs 
to Christians in all ages and places, in all degrees 



122 



SERMON VIII. 



and conditions. To all such, St. Paul says, as well 
as to the brethren at Philippi, "Let us be thus 
minded," (ver. 15.) To all, the Apostle's example 
comes with the Apostle's authority. But, in truth, 
it is not so much by his authority that the Apostle 
impresses upon his disciples the importance of the 
course of action which he describes ; — not so much 
by his authority, as by that sympathy in the desire 
of spiritual progress which all men must feel ; or at 
least, all but those of the most earthly and grovelling 
nature. The duty of pressing forwards in the ad- 
vance from darkness to light, from foulness to clean- 
ness, from error to truth, from vice to virtue, is a 
duty which needs no arguments to recommend it. 
In all whose minds are not degraded by sensuality 
or world liness, the operation of such a desire is irre- 
pressible. None would not be better and purer, 
would not know and do what is right. As far as the 
eye of Reason can discern the space which lies before 
us in the field of moral advancement, while we look 
forwards we cannot help hearing a call to press 
forwards ; we are continually urged by an inward 
prompting to summon our powers, and gird ourselves 
for the race. And when, before the light of revelation, 
the clouds have rolled away which bound the view of 
mere human Reason: — when the brief and dusky 
course, which at first we could alone discern, spreads 
onwards to an illimitable extent, far beyond the por- 
tals of our terrestrial sojourn, through an intermin- 
able vista of celestial brightness ; — then, indeed, our 



PRESSING FORWARD 



123 



hearts may well swell high, if we can hope that it is 
given to us to press forwards along that shining way. 
Nor, surely, shall we shrink back and turn away 
from the race set before us, so long as the gate is 
open, and promised aid to support our feebleness is 
nigh, even though there hang dark shades over the 
earlier portion of our path, and clouds and gloom, 
at times and for a season, intercept and eclipse the 
glorious light towards which we travel. The race 
that is set before us is, that we are constantly to 
strive to improve our spiritual being; to purify and 
elevate our hearts; to find, in the gracious dispen- 
sation of God, through Christ, pardon for our sins, 
and help for our infirmities ; to seek more and more 
to be partakers in what He has done, in what He has 
won, in what He has suffered, in what He has pro- 
mised ; — and thus, so to know and to do his will on 
earth, that we may constantly approach more and 
more to that condition of mind and soul in which we 
may be like Him, as we shall be when we see Him 
as He is. This is the mark which is before us ; this 
is our high calling. And such a call as this needs 
not to be enforced by arguments. That we are thus 
bound to raise and to cleanse our hearts, cannot be 
doubtful to us, if we feel that we have hearts which 
can be raised and cleansed. That we are to improve 
all our faculties, and dedicate them more and more 
to the service for which our Creator and Master 
ordained them, we cannot doubt, if we believe that 
we are his creatures, intended to do his will. That 



124 



SERMON VIII. 



we ought ever to strive to go on towards perfection, 
must be plain to us, if we have ever looked towards 
perfection ; for it is impossible to look in that direc- 
tion without emotions of love and desire. The Chris- 
tian ambition, which is ever aspiring at something 
higher than it has yet arrived at, — which forgets the 
things which are behind, and reaches forth unto the 
things which are before — is a part of the nature of 
every man who has been awakened to the needs and 
powers of his own spirit. When we once see that 
there is such a mark ; when we once hear the high 
call which proclaims the race open to us; we know 
that the prize must be worthy of our best exertions ; 
we know that any progress which we make will be 
its own reward, because it is a progress; we know 
that though we shall ever have to say, "not as though 
I had already attained, either were already perfect ;" 
we must ever be ready to say also, with unhesitating 
resolution, "This one thing I do." 

This Christian ambition, this effort to approach 
nearer to perfection, this straining after the things 
that are before, which is thus so congenial to a spirit 
awakened to a consciousness of its own value, and 
a hope of its permitted progress, it is for us, as the 
Apostle exhorts us, to foster and cherish, to unfold 
and extend. When this desire has taken full pos- 
session of the character, it will show itself in every 
part of our thoughts and actions, in every line of our 
occupations and pursuits. Its most important office is 
in our spiritual concerns ; in urging us to a continual 



PRESSING FORWARD. 



125 



solicitude respecting the improvement of our religious 
condition; in impelling us to aim constantly to ap- 
proach to the image of God in Christ. And it is 
principally in order to impress upon you the duty 
of fostering such aspirations and such endeavours, that 
we have brought under your notice the Apostle's 
account of his habits of thought and action. But 
such habits, when fully established in the mind, will 
affect also, as we have said, our other employments, 
and ought to do so. The zeal, the hopefulness, the 
love of excellence, the suppression of self-complacency, 
the pleased contemplation of the idea of perfection, 
which draw on the Christian in every stage of his 
walk with God, may also most fitly and congenially 
govern his other pursuits; for which of these does 
not proceed from, and in its time affect, the faculties 
which God has given him ? In his cultivation of his 
intellect, in his acquisition of knowledge, in his grati- 
fication of his love of excellence of all kinds ; in his 
dealings with those around him , in his endeavours to 
remove their evils, and to influence them for good; 
in word and deed, in contemplation and in action, the 
true Christian will still be animated by such a spirit 
as may be described in words like those of the text — 
" forgetting those things which are behind, and reach- 
ing forth unto those things which are before, he will 
press forwards towards the mark for the prize of his 
high calling." 

Let us very briefly consider the natural and appro- 
priate influence of this spirit under some circum- 



126 



SERMON VIII. 



stances which may from time to time come under 
our notice. 

The spirit of which we speak, will, as we have 
already said, animate those in whom it resides, even 
in the cultivation of their intellect, in their acqui- 
sition of knowledge, in their study and imitation of 
what is most excellent and beautiful in the works 
of the human reason and imagination. Even in these 
pursuits, we have before us a task which is never 
to end, never to be interrupted. To discipline the 
reasoning power, to raise higher and higher the stand- 
ard of excellence, to enlarge our sympathy with the 
most gifted minds of all ages, to learn the history of 
what man has been and done, the evidence of what 
he may be and can do, — these are employments in 
which we can never reach a termination, — in which 
the further we advance, the more worthily do we deal 
with the gifts of reason, and thought, and language, 
of leisure and opportunity and aid, which God in his 
goodness has given us. No one with a true reverence 
for the powers of his own intelligent nature, can be 
content to stop, — to stand still and close the career 
of his intellectual culture, as if his business were 
finished; as if his acquaintance with those writings 
and those studies which have always constituted 
the culture of the Christian world were sufficiently 
ample and exact, so that he had no further need 
to extend it or to make it more profound. Above all, 
let not us who come here ever admit such a thought 
into our hearts. Let us never allow ourselves to 



PRESSING FORWARD. 



127 



imagine that we come here only to receive the re- 
wards of the progress we have previously made. 
Let us never believe that the struggle to attain ex- 
cellence, which has, it may be hoped, occupied the 
former part of our lives, is here to be superseded 
by the struggle for distinction. Let us not reach 
towards the prizes of honour or profit which lie about 
our path here, as if that were our main employment, 
or as if they were sufficing and ultimate objects. Such 
things may indeed be valuable, if they are made the 
outward tokens of a constant advance of the mind 
within ; if they are so selected as to designate the 
successive stages of progress in the regions of solid 
truth and ideal beauty. But if we direct all our 
powers towards these proximate ends ; if we allow 
our eagerness for them to arrest our advancement in 
real knowledge and in sober thought, we relinquish 
that earnest spirit of constant aspiration of which we 
have spoken. If we thus allow our eyes to fasten upon 
those material and outward prizes, they are no longer 
the prizes of a high calling, but impediments in that 
career in which we are called upon ever to go on- 
wards. If, while we are here, we allow ourselves to 
see nothing but the glitter of such objects, they may 
dazzle and bewilder us, instead of being, as when 
duly regarded and used, they may be, the shining 
measuring points of a course in which our intellectual 
and moral powers are constantly pressing forwards in 
the career of their high calling, towards a higher mark 
and a more precious prize than any which can be 
found in this our narrow boundary. 



128 



SERMON VIII. 



But further. This culture and discipline of our 
internal faculties, this acquaintance with what men 
have thought and done in former times, however far 
our progress be carried, however high the aims, how- 
ever large the views with which we pursue it, are still 
but preparations to other parts of our career. Most 
of us run here but a brief course, which is to lead us 
to the entrance of a wider field. From the series of 
scholastic lessons, from the cycle of academic ex- 
ercises, from the quiet cell where the eager student 
urges his course through the volumes of ancient 
lore, many of you will soon be called away to the 
business of maturer life. You will be summoned to 
some position where you will have to act, each as 
a man with men : where you will have to deal 
with, and it may be to produce an effect upon, their 
passions, their interests, their vices, their virtues. 
You will go among them — this we will trust con- 
cerning you — with the hope that your dealings shall 
be for good ; — that your intercourse with them shall 
tend to promote the ends in which good men have 
a common sympathy. And so may it be ; and large 
may be your success ! But yet however large it be, 
or however small ; whether you make rapid advances 
in the designs which you undertake, or find your- 
selves thwarted, impeded, and baffled, by evergrowing 
difficulties ; — whether you are made glad or sorry ; — 
in your hours of confidence or of despondency ; — 
still you will do well, often to call to mind the Apo- 
stle's proclamation of the spirit in which, through 
his life, he laboured. "This one thing I do; for- 



PRESSING FORWARD. 



129 



getting the things which are behind and reaching 
unto the things which are before, I press forwards 
to the mark for the prize of the high calling." 

If, for example, your lot is, that the spiritual in- 
terests of a portion of your fellow-Christians are com- 
mitted to your care, how needful will it be for you 
to act in this spirit ! You may find that you have 
on every side of you, ignorance, perverseness, vice, 
callousness. Still you must not acquiesce nor de- 
spond; you must press forwards to the mark. The 
high calling of God through Christ Jesus, invites you, 
urges you on, — will not let you rest. You must not 
refuse to listen to this call. You must not cease to 
labour, till ignorance and vice are in some degree 
among the things which are behind; and then you 
must not cease to labour till you leave a larger 
portion of them behind; and so forwards and for- 
wards, ever reaching on to the things which are 
before. 

Or again, you may be placed among those who 
are elevated above the lowest condition of darkness 
and depravity, and you may hear, on every side of 
you, voices exhorting you to leave things as they are ; 
to be content with what is tolerable ; not to aim at 
a perfection which you can never reach ; not to tor- 
ment yourselves fruitlessly by entering upon schemes 
of improvement which can never attain their com- 
pletion, and must involve you in endless labour and 
solicitude. If you are so addressed, you will call to 
mind the Apostle's rule, and you will not be at a loss 
w. c. s. K 



130 



SERMON VIII. 



what to answer. You will, like him, refuse to acqui- 
esce in the first degree of good; you will refuse to 
stand still at the first stage of moral and religious 
advancement. You will still press onward. You will 
recollect how high is your calling; how great the 
prize, how elevated the mark at which you are to 
aim. You will not be satisfied with lukewarmness, 
with mere decency, with the suppression or removal 
of gross ignorance and vice and impiety : when these 
things are done, you will forget them as things that 
are behind, and will reach on to the things which 
are before. You will endeavour to teach those 
around you how solemn is their burden of duty, how 
large the promise of their hope ; — that they are the 
servants of Almighty God and heirs of an eternal life. 
To whatever virtue, to whatever faith they may have, 
you will bid them add knowledge ; and to knowledge, 
temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to 
patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kind- 
ness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity. You will 
not be satisfied till you have tried to bring among 
them the whole train of Christian virtues and Chris- 
tian graces. 

And even if your happier lot be cast among those 
who hear your voice with gladness, when you speak 
to them of the things pertaining to their salvation ; 
if you are placed in a throng who are already moving 
onwards in their pilgrimage, with their eyes fixed on 
eternal things ; still you will not even then acquiesce 
with complacency in any present condition of theirs 



PRESSING FORWARD. 131 

or of yours. Still it is your business to forget the 
things which are behind and to press forwards: — to 
call those who are about you to greater purity, to 
greater spirituality, to warmer love, to more hea- 
venly aspirations. Still you know that neither you 
nor they can ever lift up your gaze to the height of 
the mark to which your high calling directs you; — can 
never sufficiently open your hearts to the prize that 
is set before you. On this side heaven we never can 
have done with that task which consists in labouring, 
and desiring, in struggling, and praying, that we may 
be made more fit for heaven. 

And even if you are not especially set to watch 
over the souls of men, as his ordained ministers, still, 
in whatever condition you may be placed, you will 
have need and occasion for that spirit of undying 
hope, of untiring labour, of unresting desire of fur- 
ther advance in good, which the Apostle expresses. 
In whatever situation we are placed, we shall find 
around us misery and vice, ignorance and malice, 
evils of the body and outward state, evils of the 
heart and mind. In whatever situation we are placed, 
we may do something for the alleviation of those 
evils; something to improve the condition, material, 
moral, and spiritual, of our neighbours. Some of you 
may have to perform tasks like these with large 
means and a wide range of action; — may have to 
do your work with the powers which wealth and 
station, which eloquence and wisdom, put in your 
hands. May your powers be blessed by your Hea- 

K 2 



132 



SERMON VIII. 



venly Master, and may he give you abundant success 
in such labours ! But whatever be your success, or 
whatever your discouragements, still have graven 
upon your hearts the Apostle's principle of action. 
You are never to stop ; never to count yourselves 
to have apprehended ; never to acquiesce, with self- 
complacency and contentment, in what has already 
been done. The war which you have to carry on, 
with ignorance and vice, with want and misery, 
with covetousness and turbulence, is an internecine 
yet an interminable war. You cannot be content till 
the foe is destroyed, yet you know he can never be 
exterminated. You may often fail, but you may not 
ever despair. You may often succeed, but you may 
not ever have done. You can never have an igno- 
minious defeat ; you will always preserve the shield 
which secures you from faintness of heart. You can 
never have a crowning victory, for your crown is not 
bestowed on earth. The race is here, the prize is in 
a higher region. The stirring call sounds in your 
ears here below, but it comes from on high. It 
exhorts you onwards, in the earliest and humblest 
stages of your career ; — it exhorts you onwards still, 
in the latest and highest. Its language still is, 
" This one thing do : forgetting the things which 
are behind, reach forth unto the things which are 
before." 

But of all these applications of the Apostle's ani- 
mating maxims, let us never forget that the most 
important of all is that primary application in which 



PRESSING FORWARD. 



133 



he himself uttered it : — that in which it refers to our 
internal spiritual condition and progress. In that 
sense, it is most important that we should press 
onwards towards the mark, for it is the mark of 
the prize of our high calling to God in Christ Jesus. 
We, like Paul, are to count all things loss, so that 
we may be found in him, that we may know him, 
the power of his righteousness, of his resurrection. 
We are constantly to seek to be made more and more 
like him here, that we may more and more hope 
to live with him everlastingly hereafter. 

The voice of our high calling is constantly exhort- 
ing us, with a thousand utterances, to lift up our 
hearts. Among these modes of utterance, none are 
more plain and distinct than the voice of the ordi- 
nances by which God in Christ loves to unite himself 
with his faithful servants. This voice will shortly 
sound in our ears. When it does so, may we indeed 
lift up our hearts to the Lord. May His Holy Spirit 
so draw us to Him, that we may cast off all sloth- 
fulness, and despondency, and self-complacency, all 
coward spirit, and fainting hope, and narrowed pur- 
pose ; and, trusting in His gracious aid, never with- 
' held from those who earnestly and perseveringly seek 
it, run with courage and patience, and if it please 
him, with comfort and gladness, the race that is set 
before us : still, as we travel onward from stage to 
stage, looking up to Him, the Author and Finisher ; 
still following after his light and glory, if that so, 
we may apprehend that for which also we, each 



134 



SERMON VIII. 



of us, are apprehended of Christ Jesus: "that we 
may know Him, and the power of his resurrection, 
and the fellowship of his sufferings; being made con- 
formable unto his death, if by any means we may 
attain to the resurrection of the dead." 
This may He grant ! 



SERMON IX. 



(1844. Easter Term.) 



Isaiah II. 22. 



Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils ; for 
wherein is he to be accounted of? 

T7E are all ready enough to assent in a general 



* " way to assertions of the blindness and weakness 
of man, and to declarations of the folly of depending 
upon man for guidance and support. We feel in our- 
selves in our more sober moments, and we see in 
others, how frail and fallible man is; how dim his 
sight, how numerous the obstacles that impede his 
vision ; how feeble his powers, how strong the temp- 
tations which lead him astray ; how prone his nature 
to yield to evil, how helpless to recover the good 
when missed or lost. We know that all his strength, 
all his power, all his light, is a gift from on high ; 
given and withdrawn with no notice to him ; in- 
securely held, imperfectly employed. The breath that 
animates his body, may in a moment become op- 
pressed with disease or checked by death. The reason 
that illuminates his mind waves with his wavering 




136 



SERMON IX. 



breath ; ever a dim and flickering light, often quenched 
in a moment. The wisest, the strongest, the greatest 
of men, how little have they done for themselves ! 
how foolish then in us the expectation that we 
shall find them do much for us ! When we look 
even at created things which have a little more of 
stability in them, how transitory and insignificant do 
the generations of men appear to us. Do not all our 
hearts respond with a solemn humility to the words 
in which the Psalmist utters this reflection : " When I 
consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the 
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what is 
man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, 
that thou visitest him?" It is true that the Creator 
has given to him mighty privileges. " Thou hast made 
him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned 
him with glory and honour." But let not this ever 
lead him to forget how frail and dependent he is. 
(Ps. xxxix.) " Lord make him to know his end and 
the number of his days: his days are as a hand- 
breadth; his duration is as nothing: every man at 
his best estate is altogether vanity. Surely every man 
walketh in a vain show." And as his being and stay 
upon earth is thus transitory, transitory no less are 
his imaginations and devices. His wisdom, his power, 
his plans, his systems, all pass rapidly away. Those 
of one generation tread on the heels, and almost ob- 
literate the footsteps, of their predecessors. All that 
is "most admired is soon scarcely preserved from being 
forgotten : weakness pushes strength away, and folly 



ADMIRATION OF MEN. 



137 



drives out wisdom, and the great are displaced and 
overshadowed by the little. Whom then can we find, 
among the generations of men, in whom we may trust, 
or on whom we may lean ? And may we not well 
accept, as wise and just, the warning of the Prophet : 
Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils ; 
for wherein is he to be accounted off 

On the other hand, we are no less ready in general $ 
to agree with those who tell us that Truth is a stable, 
solid, enduring treasure, a sure foundation ; the proper 
object of our regard, the proper guide of our lives 
and thoughts. We willingly listen to those who speak 
to us of eternal and immutable truths ; who call upon 
us for our gratitude to God for having imparted to us 
so large a portion of his truth : for having given us 
faculties by which we can apprehend that truth, the 
contemplation of which is our highest privilege : still 
more, for having disclosed to us, by revelation from 
himself, those truths which by our reason we could 
not have discovered : and again, for having preserved 
to us, from generation to generation, the precious in- 
heritance of such truths, and for having placed us 
where they are freely taught and freely learnt. We 
gladly assent to the largest expressions of the great- 
ness of the blessings which Truth brings with her. 
We rejoice when we hear that the Truth shall make 
us free; that Grace and Truth are come upon the 
earth : that there is a Spirit of Truth which can guide 
us into all truth : and we are willing to acknowledge 
that to be a minister of the Truth, to forward its pro- 



138 



SERMON IX. 



gress among men, and its influence over them, is the 
greatest and most glorious employment which can fall 
to the lot of man. 

This being so, let us consider how inconsistent 
with ourselves we should be, if we should bestow our 
admiration upon men without any regard to the part 
they bear or have borne, in the promotion of the 
truth among their fellow-men : — if, with all our pro- 
fessed admiration and love for the truth, with all our 
professed mistrust of human strength and wisdom, 
we should, in judging of what is wise and great, fix 
our eyes on human skill and power, as things admi- 
rable in themselves, without regarding the purposes 
for which they have been employed. We are surely 
trifling with our better feelings when we admire the 
strength and skill of the robber or the murderer, 
and put out of our sight his crime and cruelty: we 
are no less trifling with our judgment of right and 
wrong, of true and false, when we bestow our admi- 
ration upon any man's acuteness of mind, or elo- 
quence of tongue, or power of binding his fellow- 
creatures to obey him and to do his will ; and think 
lightly and carelessly of his having employed these 
powers to diffuse falsehood, to propagate errour, to 
confuse and perplex and obscure the truth, to de- 
stroy its efficacy and influence over men's minds. If 
we do this, we do not cease from man, whose breath 
is in his nostrils, and take no account of him ; but 
on the contrary, we take our main account of him : 
we consider his excellencies and powers as the only 



ADMIB ATION OF MEN. 



139 



matters worthy of regard: we allow ourselves to 
deem as if the breath of man could turn aside the 
fixed guiding-marks which point out the directions of 
right and wrong. We act as if we were obeying a 
teacher who should exhort us, in a different mood 
from the prophet in the text, and should say to us, 
Cease ye from thinking ought of any truth which 
depends not upon the breath of man ; for wherein is 
it to be accounted of? 

If we are ever led into this kind of inconsistency 
and errour, it may be of use to us to recollect expres- 
sions such as those in the text, (and there are many 
such in the Scriptures,) of which the object appears 
to be, to warn us against this very mistake, and to 
remind us how worthless and vile are all power, and 
skill, and knowledge, which is employed to assail 
and not to promote the cause of truth. And in sur- 
veying the past history and present condition of the 
world, it may not be useless to have such a monition 
laid up in the storehouse of the mind, ready to be 
called into utterance, whenever the occasion may 
offer itself to us. For undoubtedly there is, in the 
aspect of human strength of soul and will, in the 
contemplation of acute and far-reaching intellect, 
in the view of skill, and promptitude, and energy of 
action, something which may often win and draw us, 
as if with a kind of enchantment. Human feelings 
and human interests prevail over doctrines, however 
true, which are not embodied in those human forms. 
And although, in reality, the highest and most precious 



140 



SERMON IX. 



human interests, the widest and most lasting human 
sympathies, are necessarily connected with the esta- 
blishment and maintenance of the truth; lower and 
narrower, and more immediate attractions may warp 
us towards special objects, and may make us neglect 
for a time that which alone can hold us firmly to 
anything. We may be drawn aside by the cords of 
a man ; by wonder and fear and pity, by splendour 
and strength and subtlety, and may forget that these 
ties, however strong and close, will yet in the end 
break or yield, if they are strained in a direction in 
which they resist the eternal and adamantine bonds 
of truth; — in which they are employed to prevent 
and wrest awry the inflexible canons of right and- 
wrong. 

Men may be led, for instance, to admire the Con- 
queror. Kings fly before him. Nations are subju- 
gated to his sway. He unites in his single will the 
force of millions. All the powers of his own land, 
the resources of distant regions, the movements of 
armies and fleets, the hopes and fears of tribes of 
men,— all these things he wields and moves, as a 
man, by the inner mechanism of his frame, moves 
his hands and his arms to strike or to hold. He 
resists fear and warnings ; he traces by his practical 
insight the trains which bind causes and consequences; 
he acquires such an ascendancy over men that they 
do not dare to raise their eyes in his presence, and 
bend before him as if he were something more than 
mortal. And now how shall we regard him? Shall 



ADMIRATION OF MEN. 



141 



we too stoop and shade our eyes and tame down our 
hearts, and give our wonder and our reverence to 
his greatness and might, without asking to know 
more than that which we have spoken of? Surely 
not. Surely we need to know far more than this, 
before we can tell whether he be worthy of any 
other feeling than abhorrence. Before we can ad- 
mire, we must know that he was just, as well as 
strong ; careful of the goodness of his cause, as well 
as of the might of his arms ; moderate and equitable, 
in spite of the allurements of success. If instead of 
this, he were aggressive, rushing into war as a con- 
genial element, not betaking himself to it as a neces- 
sary evil, — careless of right, greedy of the possessions 
of other nations, inflaming his fiercer thoughts in 
order to make his course of action more energetic 
and deadly, disregarding the universal rules of justice 
which should regulate the acts of nations as of men, 
and laughing at all suggestions of equity; — if the pro- 
posed object of admiration were such a man, surely 
the monitor whom we have invited to abide with us, 
would at once utter his warning : Cease ye from man, 
whose breath is in his nostrils ; for wherein is he to 
be accounted off 

Or again, suppose that instead of one who sub- 
dues nations by the hands of armed men, and erects 
for himself an edifice of temporal authority, we have 
to contemplate a conqueror of another kind, who by 
his skill in dealing with men's religious hopes and 
fears, their curiosity and reverence with regard to 



142 



SERMON IX. 



divine things, establishes a despotism over their minds. 
Such the world has seen, who have wielded numer- 
ous and disciplined hosts of priests, as the skilful cap- 
tain directs his bands of warriors : — who have by 
their subtlety, and knowledge, and boldness, exer- 
cised a more than kingly power over all lands that 
are called Christian; have subjugated their minds, 
treated with disdain their existence and independence 
as nations, pretended to shut the doors of heaven 
against their prayers, and to prevent the sunlight of 
God's grace from shining upon them. Are we dazzled 
with such a manifestation of human wit and audacity ; 
with such a skill in using alike the strength and the 
weakness of human nature ; with such a wide and 
artful scheme of government of men's spirits; with 
such a pompous drama in which emperors are made 
to play subordinate parts? Surely we are not so led 
away. Surely there are other things to be consi- 
dered than these. Life is not a mere play ; and men 
are not mere actors, who may equally win our ap- 
plause by acting the martyr or the murderer, provided 
they act with energy and consistency. Surely our minds 
are enfeebled and perverted, when we allow them 
to lean towards such a view. Surely when we thus 
deem, we have forgotten for the time our reverence 
for the truth of God. Is it not truth that the king- 
dom of Christ is not of this world ? and how can this 
truth be more plainly violated than when men pretend, 
in the name of Christ, to pull down and set up the 
kingdoms of this world ? Is it not a truth that the 



ADMIRATION OF MEN. 



143 



powers that be in each nation are ordained of God ? 
and how can this truth be more despised than when 
men disobey the powers that be, in order to conform 
to the commands of men belonging to another earthly 
city and another worldly polity. Is it not as contrary 
to a regard for truth and justice, for national inde- 
pendence and spiritual freedom, for the rights of men 
and the claims of God, to gaze with unchecked admi- 
ration upon the spiritual, as upon the martial con- 
queror ? Can we fail to recollect, with indignation 
and grief, what wickedness, what falsehood, what 
fraud, what tyranny have accompanied such usurpa- 
tions of power as those of which we speak? And 
shall we not, in this case too, listen to the monitor 
when he cries to us, Cease ye from man, whose breath 
is in his nostrils ; for wherein is he to be accounted 
off 

But yet again. Let us suppose that we are invited 
to admire a man who exercises over men's minds 
a sway of another kind ; — one who can enter into all 
the impulses of joy and hope, the vehement and 
turbulent passions, the gorgeous visions, the wild and 
dark imaginations which hold their daily and nightly 
course through the souls of men; — who can clothe 
all such thoughts, though so dim and fleeting and 
hard to seize, in bright and fluent and melodious 
words ; — who can hold to men's minds, as it were, 
a wondrous glass in which they see their own in- 
ternal movements reflected, but with a strange and 
startling vividness, and hear, the while, the internal 



144 



SERMON IX. 



voice of their hearts echoed in strains of significant 
music. If such men are presented to our notice, 
shall we forthwith give ourselves up to an admiration 
bestowed upon this music, this brilliance, this art 
of self-reflection? Shall we not rather inquire first, 
whether there be, in the exercise of this skill, that 
element of vital truth, without which nothing which 
man does can be worthy of admiration? And if it 
appear that he who is master of this light and this 
music is careless of good and evil ; — that he dwells 
and leads us to dwell on fierce and foul passions, 
revenge and pollution, fraud and treachery, as well 
as upon love and justice, and purity and faith, and 
apparently dwells on all with an equal eye, as an 
indifferent spectator of all ; and if his Imagination 
be alike a willing handmaid of these various emotions 
and impulses, flinging her embroidered and many- 
coloured robes over virtues and vices with an undis- 
tinguishing hand, and perhaps disguising them as if 
she were desirous that we should not distinguish the 
one from the other; — if he who is offered to us 
for admiration as one of the sovereigns of the wil- 
ling soul be thus destitute of a regard for that moral 
truth which is the universal condition of man's real 
human nature, surely we shall not join in this wor- 
ship of skill and sensibility so applied. Surely we 
shall consider, as more truly understanding his voca- 
tion, that Master of this art who recollected that it 
was not in artful measures, nor the chime and idle 
tinkling of the sweetest lyre to charm His ear whose 



ADMIRATION OF MEN. 



145 



eye is on the heart, whose frown can disappoint the 
proudest strains that are at variance with His truth, 
and whose truth can give a coherency and persuasive- 
ness which nothing else can replace. And if we are 
called upon to wonder at and delight in any of the 
utterances of thought and feeling and fancy which 
violate the reverence for that which is right and true 
and good; — if we are expected to accept, as sufficiently 
filling the vacancies left by the want of these great 
elements, melodious falsehoods and strains poured 
forth by unlicensed pleasure or uncontrolled passion ; 
— shall we not here too listen to the teacher, and 
attend to him when he says to us, Cease ye from man, 
whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to 
be accounted of f 

But it may be said that by thus calling upon our 
hearers to give their reverence to Truth, and not to 
the power and vigour and skill and knowledge of 
man, we are taking for granted that we can discern 
what the Truth is, so that we may direct our rever- 
ence towards it : — whereas, it will perhaps be added, 
it is most difficult to know what the Truth is, in such 
matters as those on which the differences of men's 
characters depend. It is easier, it may be said, to 
determine who among men are strong and energetic 
and sagacious and skilful and wise in their genera- 
tion, than it is to decide among their conflicting 
opinions and systems and aims, what is right and 
good and true. This may occur to some perhaps as 
an answer to the warning which we are attempting to 
w. c. s. L 



146 



SERMON IX. 



impress upon you, to consider it as the first condition 
of your bestowing your admiration upon any man 
that he should have been engaged in the service of 
truth. This may offer itself as an answer to our 
warning : but yet surely this is an answer which 
of itself implies something from which you would 
require to be warned. Such a reply would invite the 
Apostle's warning (Heb. iii. 12.) "Take heed, brethren, 
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief." 
For if you have really laid hold on the truth, you can 
no longer have any difficulty in determining, at least 
in a great degree, who have been her servants and 
friends. Doubtless some truths are of a wider and 
some of a narrower kind : some prepare the way to 
others, which come afterwards, and satisfy further the 
craving mind : but yet those who are united by their 
love of the truth will, for the most part, be united 
also by their belief that God's good providence has 
made Truth attainable to man, and that man has not 
been merely baffled and deluded, in his hopes to lay 
hold on a portion of the precious boon. And believing 
that they have really attained to the knowledge of 
that truth which God wills them to know and to hold 
fast, they cannot, — full of gratitude and hope as such 
a possession must make them, — they cannot think it 
a matter of indifference, in judging of men's characters 
and actions and words, whether they live and act and 
speak on the side of truth or of falsehood. But a 
deficiency in this trust and gratitude, — a persuasion 
that truth is unattainable ; that man has as yet ob- 



ADMIRATION OF MEN. 



147 



tained no hold upon it ; that men of all different and 
opposite opinions may equally be supposed to be on 
the side of truth ; — this, no doubt, will make it con- 
ceivable why we should look at men's qualities and 
characters, rather than on the work they have done 
and the service they have rendered ; but then, on the 
other hand, this would make all man's work, all his 
service vain, since there is then no good cause which he 
can further, no edifying truth to which he can add his 
store, no stability in the results of the past, no hope in 
the exertions of the future. If this were so, we might 
indeed alter the prophet's warning, and cry, Cease 
ye from looking to the cause of truth, as that which 
determines how a man is to be accounted of : but we 
might also still cry, Cease ye from looking with any 
regard upon man, for what is there in which he can 
be accounted of any value? What purpose can his 
exertions answer ? to what end does he live at all ? 

My dear friends, I trust your views are all far 
removed from such as these. I trust that you believe 
there is a truth — a truth which God has given to us ; 
which he has made attainable to man ; — attainable in 
part by the exertion of his own powers, and by the 
manner in which each generation is enabled to profit 
by the labours of its predecessors, and to add to the 
stock of truth which, thus accumulated, belongs to the 
human race ; and this is so, be assured, in matters 
which regard man's moral being as well as the mere 
world of outer things. But further, in this body of 
truth of which I speak, all that has been discovered 



148 



SERMON IX. 



by the exercise of human reason is pale and cold, as 
the moon before the sun, compared with the direct 
light of revelation, which God has given us through 
his Son Jesus Christ. If we ask to know what is 
the truth, we have, for our present needs here, a 
sufficient answer in that passage of Scripture which 
has been brought under our notice in the course of 
the services of the past week. When the doubting 
disciple said, Bow can we know the way f the answer 
was, / am the way, the truth, and the life*. Grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ. Whatever other dim 
glimpses of truth man may, in other ways, by the 
widely diffused goodness of God, have obtained, the 
whole aspect and condition of the world is so changed 
by the light and warmth which the Sun of Right- 
eousness pours upon it, that it would be vain and idle 
to look upon any question which regards the interests 
and duties of man, any question, in short, of good 
and evil, without making it our business to regard 
the truth as it is in Christ. It may be a matter 
requiring thoughtful and careful consideration how 
we are, from this general source of truth, to deduce 
the standard of special subjects, special actions, special 
characters ; but without this basis, it will not be 
possible for us at all to arrive at any standard, any 
certainty, any stability. We shall not be able to 
stand firmly, except, as the Apostle exhorts, we have 
our loins girt about with this truth. May this truth 
ever be with us ! And may we by constant and 

* John xiv. 5. 



ADMIRATION OF MEN. 



149 



earnest prayer, by serious thought and humble medi- 
tation, and by the use of God's ordinances, so invite 
the visits of his Holy Spirit to our souls, that he may 
lead us into the Truth, as he formerly promised to his 
faithful servants! May he, by the enlightening and 
purifying influences which he can bestow, purge away 
from us all clouds of hardheartedness and self-will, 
and self-seeking, and pride, which may obscure the 
beams of his divine light ! May we obtain glimpses 
of this light, and feel the joy which it can shed in our 
hearts even here ; and may we hereafter live in that 
continual brightness, illuminated by the presence of 
Him the Father of Light, beyond all that the heart of 
man can conceive, which He has prepared for them 
that love Him ! 



SERMON X. 



(1844. Michaelmas Term.) 



Romans XIV. 7. 

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth 
to himself 

HIS declaration of St. Paul comes in the course of 
an address to the Roman disciples, in which he 
is exhorting them to have a regard, in their conduct, 
not only to the general Rules of what is, and what 
is not permitted, but also, to the effect which their 
actions may have upon their fellow-Christians among 
whom they live. He is referring to ceremonial rules, 
with regard to which there were then prevalent, 
different practices and different opinions ; some per- 
sons contending for the observance of the ancient 
written commands of God's word, and others for the 
liberty which was brought in by the New Dispensation. 
In this controversy, St. Paul does not attempt to con- 
ceal that he has no doubt which side is in the right : 
but he does not think it enough to pronounce his 
judgment on the controverted point. He does not 
deliver his directions that those who are in the right 



LIVING TO OTHERS. 



151 



must persevere, and those who are in the wrong 
must yield. He knew that when men have been 
drawn into opposition and conflict they will hardly 
ever accept and acquiesce in a sentence of this kind, 
however authoritative be the voice which utters it. 
He might have said, "Salvation does not depend 
upon ceremonies : it is the Christian course to dis- 
regard them." But his advice is different : he finds 
a more Christian course than this : he tells his dis- 
ciples that they are not merely to consider such 
matters in themselves ; but also, in their effect in the 
way of sympathy, example, and rule ; — that they are 
to take into their account the influence of their 
actions upon other men; — that they are to look at 
the objections and doubts and troubles of others, not 
as obstacles to be trampled down, and follies to be 
disregarded ; but in a kind and affectionate spirit, as 
weaknesses to be tolerated, suspicions to be removed, 
contradictions to be conciliated, We are not, he 
says, to act, to think, to feel as if each man had only 
himself to care for. We are not to despise and dis- 
parage one another on account of our differences. We 
are not to cast away all regard for the convictions of 
one another. We are not separated and removed to 
a distance from each other, so that each may follow 
his own path and seek his own solitary good. The 
condition in which, as Christians, we stand is far 
different from this. We cannot, any of us, be alone ; 
we cannot be dissevered one from another. We are 
bound together by ties which extend through life, 



152 



SERMON X. 



and do not end with life. None of us liveth to him- 
self and no man dieth to himself. 

The same lesson is inculcated in the first Epistle to 
the Corinthians; and in reference to the same subject, 
the obedience of Christians to those ceremonial Rules, 
with regard to which there prevailed a difference of 
opinion among the Christian converts. We have, in 
that Epistle also, the same comprehensive and careful 
regard for others enjoined. (1 Cor. viii. 4.) " Take 
heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become 
a stumbling-block to them that are weak." And in 
urging this view, St. Paul uses that most tender and 
touching appeal to the mingled sentiment of kindness 
and piety, which we ought ever to have ready in our 
minds, as what may withold us from the misuse of 
any fancied superiority : Take heed lest through thy 
knowledge thy weak brother perish, for whom Christ 
died. This is indeed a thought which must ever ex- 
ercise a most powerful force in stirring up all good 
will, and restraining all harshness, in the mind of 
every Christian. Do we think it much to bestow 
some kindness on our fellow-Christians? Christ did 
not think it too much to die for them. Do we think 
some sacrifice which we are called upon to make on 
their behalf too great ? Christ did not think the sacri- 
fice of himself too great. Do we think them too un- 
worthy, too prejudiced, too mean, for us to do much 
for them? Christ did not think them unworthy that 
he should die for them. Do we, finally, think that 
we have little or nothing to do with them ; that we 



LIVING TO OTHERS. 



153 



may most properly follow our own path, and think 
not of them \ Christ thought of these, our weak 
brethren, and died for them. And thus this expression 
corresponds with our text, and finds its response there. 
Through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish, 
for whom'Christ died? Far be this from thee ! Know 
more of the way in which the Christian partakes of 
the Spirit of Christ. He cannot and will not separate 
himself from those to whom he is bound by so 
solemn and tender a tie. He acknowledges a sym- 
pathy with them : a common interest ; a common life. 
He is one of a body in which no man liveth to him- 
self, and no man dieth to himself. 

It is not my purpose at present to speak of the 
great sacrifices which Christians may have to make 
for each other, or for the general body to which they 
belong ; although the reflections to which I have re- 
ferred, might be a very fit ground for exhortation on 
that subject. We may take the words of the text in 
a more limited application, as especially enjoining 
upon us fellow-feeling, mutual consideration, and a 
common aim in those matters in which we can draw 
towards each other, without any great sacrifice ; — 
without any greater sacrifice, indeed, than that of our 
own lethargy, self-seeking, and self-will; — in which 
we are very far from coming to any inquiry, so ter- 
rible to human nature, as that one, whether we are 
ready to die for one another ; and in which the ques- 
tion is only, whether we will live as members one of 
another, instead of each man living to himself. 



154 



SERMON X. 



The injunctions to community of feeling and pur- 
pose in the greatest degrees, are very numerous and 
very strong in the New Testament : and we can 
therefore have no hesitation in applying the like in- 
junctions, in cases where the difficulty and the effort 
are smaller. When we are told that we ought to lay 
down our lives for the brethren, we cannot doubt 
whether we ought to lay down our vanity, our self- 
ishness, our pride. When we are exhorted, Let this 
mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus : look not 
every man on his own things, but on the things of 
others; — we cannot suppose that we are going too 
far in recommending any ordinary course of consi- 
deration of others, as well as of ourselves. The 
Apostle's command, Let no man seek his own, but 
every man another's weal, as it may be an incitement 
in great trials, so also may it be a guide in the com- 
mon course of our lives, and in the successive con- 
ditions in which the progress of life places us. 

The commands thus urging upon us a community 
of feeling and purpose, a mutual consideration of each 
other's wants and dangers, a union in the pursuit of 
the great ends which our position places before us, 
belong especially to us who are here assembled. We 
are brought together, not by chance, nor by the mere 
ordinary operation of the cords of affection and busi- 
ness, which draw men this way and that ; but by an 
acknowledged community of object and of opinion; — 
a large portion of us by a similarity in the period of 
life at which we are arrived, in the prospects which 



LIVING TO OTHERS. 



155 



are before us, in the grounds and supports on which 
we rest our hopes of our progress, outward and in- 
ward, here and hereafter. The common bond, then, 
which draws together all Christians, presses us with 
more than ordinary stress. We are especially called 
upon to look, each upon the good of others, as well 
as on his own ; to live for each other, as well as for 
ourselves ; to take care that our brother stumble not, 
nor come to evil through our fault or carelessness; 
our seducing vanity or repulsive pride. 

I may point out one or two ways in which this 
lesson may find its application among us ; although, 
in truth, when the lesson itself is once learnt by the 
heart, the application will come as a matter of course. 
He who seeks to have in him that mind which was 
in Christ Jesus, will find abundant opportunities of 
recollecting that none of us liveth to himself or dieth 
to himself, but that, as the Apostle adds, whether we 
live or die, we are the Lord's. 

As an example of the duties which, in our case, 
flow from the general duty of living to others as well 
as to ourselves, let us consider, in the first place, the 
duty of not being the occasion of those among whom 
we live being through us tempted to folly or vice. A 
great number of you are brought together in such a 
manner that this warning is especially applicable to 
you. You are brought together under circumstances 
which give you a great influence over each other s 
habits, for good or for evil. Sympathy, example, 
emulation ; the ascendancy of talents, of knowledge, 



156 



SERMON X. 



of reputation, of engaging manners, on one side ; the 
propensity to imitation on the other, or the willing 
confidence of an affectionate and humble nature, give 
to many of you a great efficacy in determining the 
course and employments, the feelings and manners, 
even the morals, the virtues or the vices, of those 
around you. It may be in your power to fix their 
thoughts on high and worthy aims ; to impress the 
minds of those who are your habitual companions 
with characters of dignity, of purity, of courtesy, of 
thoughtfulness. It may also be in your power to give 
to them an impress of levity, of self-will, of pride, of 
intolerance. It may too, we know too well, be in the 
power of some — men most unhappy in the possession 
of such a power — to give to the habits of their com- 
panions a tinge of impurity, of sensuality, of reckless- 
ness, of prodigality, of untruth. So true is it that no 
man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself, 
that even when a man dies that premature death, of 
a depravation of his character in youth, he may still 
drag others with him down into the blackness and 
foulness of that fatal abyss. And in smaller matters, 
the influence of one man upon another, the force of 
companionship and common objects, is constantly at 
work. And since this is so, how careful ought you to 
be, that such an influence on your part is not exerted 
for evil ! How diligently ought you to guard your- 
selves, that you may not be, to each other, an occasion 
of falling into sin ! How reverently ought you to 
regard each other's moral nature, each other's future 



LIVING TO OTHERS. 



157 



prospects, each other's souls for which Christ died ! 
Surely this is a solemn thought. It would seem 
sometimes as if there were, in the companionship of 
the young, something of a bewildering and intoxi- 
cating efficacy, which stimulates them, when gathered 
together, to especial acts of levity and extravagance. 
But looking at the matter as we are now doing, 
surely the very opposite ought to be the case. Com- 
panionship involves us in a weighty responsibility : our 
acts affect not only ourselves but our companions. 
No man liveth to himself ; no man dieth to himself : 
for the most part no man sinneth for himself alone ; 
no man is, to himself alone, guilty of profane or licen- 
tious speech, of intemperance, of the continual waste 
of time and opportunity, of the habitual resistance to 
the means of intellectual and moral and religious 
culture which are here exerted. These are social 
sins ; and how awful a thought it is that there should 
be social sins ! — that men, as if the powers of the 
Tempter were too weak, should become each the 
tempter to the other ! that they should engage in a 
desperate game, in which, the more they gain their 
ends, the more they ruin alike themselves and their 
associates. How strangely must moral beings, Chris- 
tian men, have disguised themselves, when they can 
bear to join in this monstrous masquerade of mutual 
corruption and combined sin ! 

Surely, if men's souls could be stript of the 
fantastical attire in which they cloke themselves for 
such occasions,— the garb of levity, and vanity, and 



158 



SERMON X. 



pride, and falsehood, — and could appear for a moment 
naked to each other, as Tempting and Tempted, they 
would be ashamed and abashed, and would seek to 
hide themselves from each other's sight, and from the 
sight of their Divine Judge. Surely, then, the thought 
would be felt as stamping all such courses with a 
brand of monstrous impiety and cruelty : " Shall I do 
this, and through me shall my weak brother perish 
for whom Christ died ? Shall I make that companion- 
ship of Christians which was intended as an aid and 
solace on their way to heaven, to be an impulse 
pushing them away from their path, and thrusting 
them down thither where dwelleth the blackness of 
darkness for ever ? " To this inquiry, what can our 
reply be, except a prayer : " Lord, let not this dreadful 
thing come upon me. Let not my soul be polluted 
with this sin ! " 

But the consideration stated in the text, that no 
man liveth to himself, may be carried much further. 
We are thus bound together, not only that we may 
abstain from doing each other harm, but that we may 
help and benefit each other. The thought that we 
are members one of another, is fitted, not only to 
keep us from sinning against each other, but also 
to lead us to a higher walk of truth and holiness. 

We sometimes hear of, or imagine to ourselves, 
a body of zealous and holy men bound into a brother- 
hood by their own vows, and employing themselves 
with all their powers in endeavouring to diffuse among 
men a spirit and a knowledge by which the miseries 



LIVING TO OTHERS. 



159 



and evils of their condition may be overcome and 
remedied. Let us conceive such a brotherhood, in- 
culcating upon mankind the doctrines which hopeful 
and truthful men from time to time maintain ; — that 
the depravity of the wicked, the misery of the poor, 
the blindness of the ignorant, shall not continue for 
ever; — that remedies have been found for these in- 
flictions; — that motives may now be urged which 
shall awaken men to a consciousness of their better 
nature, and expel the poisonous drops from which 
these evils spring ;- — that the wicked is wicked from 
his ignorance of his own true happiness, which may 
now be shown to him ; — that the rich is hard-hearted 
because he has never learned the pleasure of rightly 
using his wealth, and that he will now seek this 
pleasure ; — that the ignorant will greedily receive the 
truth which is now ready for him. A band of men 
devoting themselves to the promulgation of such 
views, and urging upon all classes the practical 
courses to which such views tend, we should surely 
regard with interest ; and still more, if, in proportion 
as they urged their doctrines in faith and zeal, they 
urged them also in power : if the blessing of Provi- 
dence was with them ; if God himself testified to the 
truth of their teaching ; if by the progress of the task 
which they had undertaken, it appeared that the 
remedial and enlightening changes which they sought 
to introduce among men, might be carried over the 
face of the earth ; and vice and want and ignorance 
be subdued, to an extent which the mind of man 



160 



SERMON X. 



cannot limit. If a body of men acting with such aims 
and such hopes were presented to our notice, we 
should surely admire them and regard them with 
love. We should, in our better moments at least, 
wish to belong to them ; — to share in their hope, 
their trust, their labour, their reward. We should, 
if permitted, gladly join ourselves to them, and think 
it a privilege to be, with them, the instruments of 
bringing the world to know and obey God. — But, my 
brethren, we have no need to look out for such a 
company of amenders of the world. We have no need 
to inquire where it exists, and whether we may be 
admitted to it. We already belong to a brotherhood 
which has these very objects, these very hopes, these 
very evidences of its divine commission. The body of 
Christian men have been, from the beginning, an asso- 
ciation whose purpose was to contend with, and beat 
down, sin, and selfishness, and ignorance. And from 
the first, the true servants of Christ have carried 
on this warfare, trusting to him for success. They 
have believed that his love and his truth can reclaim 
men's minds from wickedness, and soften their hearts 
towards one another, and make them impart to each 
other without grudging, and help each other in lifting 
up their hearts to God, and travel together on their 
earthly pilgrimage in the hope, when it is over, of 
dwelling together in his presence for ever. What 
does our calling as Christians mean, if it do not mean 
this ? Most significantly does the Apostle Peter re- 
mind his fellow-Christians of this, (1 Pet. ii. 9.) " Ye 



LIVING TO OTHERS. 



161 



are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy 
nation, a peculiar people;" most justly does the Apos- 
tle address those noble expressions to the Hebrews : 
(Heb. xii. 22.) " Ye are come to the heavenly Jeru- 
salem, the city of the living God ; unto an innumer- 
able company of angels ; the general assembly and 
Church of the firstborn which are written in heaven." 
It is by being joined to this assembly, this Church, 
that Christians are members one of another : and 
thus it is that no man liveth to himself or dieth to 
himself. And who is there among us who does not 
feel more hope, more zeal, more energy, more humble 
confidence, more expansive love, when he recollects, 
that he is a member of this great company, which 
is thus fighting under the banner of God and his 
Christ, — -which is thus warring against sin, and mi- 
sery, and darkness, with the same promise of victory, 
if they faint not ; — -which is thus carrying on the 
work which God himself superintends, from the 
beginning to the end; — which is looking hopefully 
on to the time when the earth shall be visibly subject 
to Him, when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover 
the earth as the waters cover the sea. 

If we could be told for the first time that there 
is such a company existing, with such hopes and 
objects, and that we^are pressed to join it, we should 
surely feel glad, and ready to obey the animating call. 
But if we have not yet thus looked upon our Chris- 
tian calling, let us begin to do so ; let us do so now. 
To many of us, it may be that this is a most meet 
w. c. s. M 



162 



SERMON X. 



occasion of recollecting to what common purposes and 
prospects we are bound by our brotherhood in Christ. 
You are here brought together from various parts, 
various stations, various spheres ; brought into com- 
pany with those who are mostly strangers to you, 
and with whom you may at first doubt whether you 
have much in common. But recollect how much you 
have in common by that common tie of Christian 
brotherhood. Recollect thai being members of Christ, 
you are members one of another : that you belong 
to a body in which no man liveth to himself, and 
no man dieth to himself: that you are all alike sworn 
to be Christ's faithful soldiers and servants to your 
lives' end. You meet here as young soldiers, engaged 
together in a warfare against the sin and misery 
which prevail in your native land and in the whole 
earth. To subdue these enemies, is to be the business 
of your life. Your country looks to you as the 
soldiers who are to carry on this warfare for her. 
Your God looks to you as the soldiers who are to 
carry on this warfare for Him. Your Saviour, who 
began this warfare upon earth, looks to you as those 
who are to follow where He led, and to carry onward 
the banner which He has placed in your hands. Of 
a band of soldiers, we know that no man liveth to 
himself, and no man dieth to himself. Each has his 
place in the ranks, and it is by combined exertion, 
as well as by individual courage, that the battle is 
won. You will be faithful to your standard. You 
will recollect, that the great cause of the good of 



LIVING TO OTHERS. 



163 



man and the glory of God depends upon your steadi- 
ness and energy; — upon your joining your efforts 
with those of your Christian fellow-soldiers; — upon 
your beginning now, and continuing during your 
lives, to fight against every front which the powers of 
evil may present to you. You will ever be faithful 
to the company of Christian men among whom you 
stand; to the God in whose presence we are. This 
we are well persuaded of you, brethren ! this we 
doubt not of you. We know that such resolutions 
rise in your breasts, and we pray to God to bless 
them to you. May He keep you stedfast in obedi- 
ence to Him, and love of Him, and of His truth ! 
May He give you strength and light to overcome all 
temptations and troubles, from without and from 
within! May He support and comfort us all by the 
riches of His abundant bounty and the conviction of 
His perpetual presence, now and evermore ! Amen. 



SERMON XI. 



(1845. Lent Term.) 



Matthew XIII. 52. 

Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven 
is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth 
forth out of his treasure things new and old. 

rPHESE words were uttered by our Saviour upon an 
- occasion when he had been teaching in a manner 
which was peculiarly characteristic of his ministry. 
He had sat in a ship while the multitude stood 
listening on the shore ; and had delivered a series of 
parables, all tending to illustrate the nature and 
course of the kingdom of heaven, and the character 
and prospects of those who should belong to it. This 
collection of parables is a portion of Scripture singu- 
larly rich in the instruction it imparts respecting our 
duties and our hopes; — what we ought to do, and 
what we may look to obtain. There are no fewer than 
seven parables here given in close succession : those 
of the sower ; of the tares ; of the grain of mustard- 
seed ; of the leaven hid in three measures of meal ; 
of the hid treasure ; of the pearl of great price ; and 
of the draw-net. It seems to be implied in the narra- 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



165 



tion that this was the beginning of Christ's so largely 
employing this mode of teaching ; for St. Matthew 
introduces his particular narration with a general 
statement (ver. 3) : And he spake many things unto 
them in parables. And again (ver. 34) : These things 
spake Jesus in parables ; and without a parable spake 
he not unto them. After the delivery of the first, his 
disciples expressed to him the perplexity into which 
they were thrown by this mode of teaching, saying, 
(ver. 10,) Why speakest thou unto them in parables ? 
And as St. Mark in the corresponding passage (ch. iv.) 
relates, when they asked him concerning the first 
parable he said unto them (ver. 13), Know ye not this 
parable f and how then will ye know all parables f 
implying that such knowledge was needful for them. 
And we learn from the Evangelists that two of these 
parables, that of the Tares, and that of the Sower, 
he fully explained : and thus, not only brought out 
the signification which these contained, but also gave 
the disciples (and us through them) a key to the 
general interpretation of parables. And when he had 
done this, as if it were a part of their lesson, that they 
were to practise the process thus laid before them, 
of seeing his spiritual meaning through the most 
common and homely images of human occupations 
and earthly things, he immediately delivered to them 
three brief and simple parables, comparing the king- 
dom of heaven to a field containing hidden treasure ; 
to a pearl of great price which the merchant thought 
it gain to purchase at the expense of all that he had ; 



160 



SERMON XI. 



and to a net that drew to shore both bad and good. 
And when he had given these examples of parables 
he said (ver. 51), Have ye understood all these things t 
They say unto him, Yea, Lord. He then uttered to 
them the words of our text : Therefore every scribe 
which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like 
unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth 
forth out of his treasure things new and old. It is 
plain that in speaking of a Scribe instructed unto the 
kingdom of heaven, our Lord referred to those whose 
business it was to be, to preach the Gospel of the king- 
dom, and to continue that course of instruction with 
regard to the duties and the hopes of the kingdom, 
which he himself had begun. Of such preachers of the 
kingdom, he says that they are like unto a house- 
holder who brings forth out of his stores things both 
new and old. 

And looking at this comparison in connexion 
with the rest of this lesson, we cannot be much to 
seek in determining for ourselves what are the new 
and what are the old things here spoken of. The 
new things are manifestly the doctrines which he 
had taught them, especially the doctrines which were 
contained in the parables which he had just then 
delivered, and the views and mental habits which 
would enable them to understand all his parables. 
These new things, they would have to bring out of 
their stores, when they came to exercise their office 
of scribes instructed unto the kingdom of heaven. 
For the two things are put in close connexion. 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



167 



Have ye understood all these things? Therefore 
every preacher of the kingdom of heaven must make 
use of such instruction, — must bring forth such new 
things. As St. Matthew himself explains Christ's 
meaning (v. 35) : " This was done that it might be 
fulfilled which was spoken by the Psalmist ; I will 
open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which 
have been kept secret from the foundation of the 
world." These were the new things which the stewards 
of the Gospel were to bring forth out of their trea- 
sures. The Apostles well fulfilled this command of 
bringing forth these new things ; and spoke of that 
which they taught in this very language ; as for 
instance, St. Paul, when (Rom. xvi. 25) he calls the 
preaching of Jesus Christ, 44 the revelation of the 
mystery which was kept secret since the world began, 
but now is made manifest ; and, by the Scriptures of 
the prophets, according to the commandment of the 
everlasting Gocl, made known to all nations for the 
obedience of faith." 

But if we thus see plainly what were the new 
things that the instructed scribes of the kingdom of 
heaven had to bring forth out of their treasures, we 
see, at the same time, what were the old things. 
For, as St. Paul says, in the passage just quoted from 
the Epistle to the Romans, the new revelation is 
made known to all nations " by the Scriptures of the 
prophets;" and as he also teaches us, the Law was 
a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ: and Christ 
himself said, " Think not that I am come to destroy 



168 



SERMON XI. 



the law and the prophets : I am not come to destroy, 
but to fulfil." Good reason there was, therefore, why 
the scribe of the kingdom of heaven should be in- 
structed in the Law and the Prophets, no less than 
the scribe of the kingdom of Israel ; and should per- 
petually bring forth from these treasures, the old 
things which he found there. And we see, in the 
teaching of St. Paul and St. Peter, with what a pene- 
trating and convincing power these old things were 
brought forth. And not only the Law and the Pro- 
phets, but the history also of that ancient people to 
whom the Law and the Prophets belonged, were 
among the old things which the instructed scribe 
might well deem precious parts of his treasure. Such 
old things are closely connected with the new, in the 
Psalm to which St. Matthew refers : (Psalm Lxxviii.) 
"I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter 
dark sayings of old : which we have heard and 
known, and our fathers have told us. We will not 
hide them from their children, shewing to the gene- 
rations to come the praises of the Lord, and his 
strength, and his wonderful works that He hath 
done ; that they might set their hope on God, and 
not forget the works of God, but keep his command- 
ments." 

Thus we see what were the new and the old 
things which our Lord's disciples were to have, col- 
lected in their storehouses, in order that they might 
be scribes instructed unto the kingdom of heaven ; 
and those good things, both new and old, they had 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



169 



perpetually to bring out, as the occasion required, 
for the instruction of others, and for the establishing 
and extending the kingdom of their Master. 

But our concern with this passage does not end 
with its application to those to whom it was originally 
spoken. Like the rest of Christ's teaching, it was 
uttered not only for their profit, but for ours. The 
description of scribes well instructed unto the king- 
dom of heaven, does not describe that first sacred 
band of them only, but all who, in future times, suc- 
ceed to their task, and undertake their office, of 
teaching the children of the kingdom, and diffusing 
the authority of the Great Head of the school. In 
all ages, in all regions, those who have to teach men 
their true relation to God, and their true business 
on earth — who have to deliver the lessons of Christ, 
and to extend his power over men — must have, in 
their treasury, things new and old : must deal with 
things new and old, in the view of making them alike 
instruments of Christian instruction, and subjects of 
Christian influence. We must all, if we would pro- 
duce any religious impression upon men, if we would 
introduce any working of religion into society, bring 
out of our stores things new and old. 

Let us briefly consider how far the Christian 
teacher has to deal with new, and how far with old 
things. And first, of the new. 

Though the truth revealed through Christ con- 
tinues always the same, yet it must, in its application, 
be constantly new, in order that it may produce the 



170 



SERMON XI. 



effect of truth. It must be this with regard to indi- 
viduals. The heart, the mind, the soul of every 
individual who comes into the world is a new thing, 
and upon this individual heart, this mind, this soul, 
the power of Christ must take a special hold, in order 
that it may do its proper work. It is true, that, 
though each man's heart is in fact a new thing, it is 
in kind an old thing. It is the heart of the old 
man. And the very office of Christian teaching con- 
sists in making this old thing new. The heart is to 
be renewed by the Spirit of Christ, and this is to 
become truly his. The old desires and purposes, the 
natural selfishness, and pride, and levity, and earth- 
liness of man, are to be cast out ; and better desires, 
and purer motives, and higher aims, and a surer trust, 
to be put in their place. The Christian teacher must 
bring forth words and modes of appeal which may 
produce this effect, in order that he may really draw 
men towards the kingdom of heaven. Happy they, 
who, under the influence of such teaching, can say, 
Behold, old things are passed away, and all things are 
become new ! In this sense, we do indeed desire that 
we may be able to bring forth for you, out of our 
store, new things. We would have the truth of Christ, 
though long established in your minds, press upon 
them every moment with the force of a new discovery. 
We would have the purity and the goodness and the 
love of God, though known to you from the beginning, 
come to you as new with every new year. We would 
have these excellencies, though old as the light, rise 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



171 



upon you every morning, new as the day. And 
that they might more especially fall upon your hearts 
as new, on each occasion when your life assumes a 
new aspect ! that they might do so on that occasion, 
which, at the turning point of your youth, brings you 
among us, new teachers, new friends, new Christian 
brethren, most deeply solicitous — believe it, for you 
may — most deeply solicitous for your spiritual welfare. 
May the grace, the mercy of God, come to you as new, 
whenever, after a pause, we again renew our usual 
round of employments; and may that grace, that 
mercy, more especially brighten before your eyes 
with new lustre, and glow in your hearts with new 
warmth, every time that you approach that sacred 
ordinance in which the exceeding great love of our 
Master and only Saviour is assured to us, by a pledge 
which he himself instituted, and commanded us to 
continue, in remembrance of Him ! 

But the truth revealed to us through Jesus Christ 
may be considered, not only in reference to its ope- 
ration in the hearts of individuals, but also with 
regard to its influence upon society in a more general 
manner. And in this view also, the Christian teacher 
has to deal with new things, and to bring new things 
out of his treasures. Christianity is constantly labour- 
ing to bring the world into obedience to God, and the 
world is constantly changing the mode of its resistance 
to this attempt. The moving principles of the oppo- 
sition to the kingdom of God are ever the same ; — - 
sensuality, wrath, selfishness, levity, hard-heartedness 



172 



SERMON XI. 



of men towards each other, pride in themselves. But 
though these are in constant action, resisting and 
counteracting the constant working of God's good 
Spirit, the mode of their action varies from age to 
age. Each period, each country, has its own special 
forms of evil : and the Christian teacher and the 
Christian labourer has to bring, out of his store, new 
things against these new things ; new forms of good 
to oppose new forms of evil. At one time, Religion 
has to oppose the foulness or wide-spread luxury pre- 
vailing in the world ; at another time, the turbulence 
of fierce and violent men ; at another, the hypocrisy 
and lies of dissemblers ; at another, a tyranny exer- 
cised in the name of Christ himself. Such dark shades 
of wickedness sweep over the face of the earth, one after 
another, as age succeeds age. But the Sun of Right- 
eousness is ever capable of pouring forth fresh beams 
to drive away in succession each mass of gloom. And 
so it must still be. Perhaps in our own time, some 
new form of the depravity of man calls upon every 
well-instructed Christian scribe for new ways of 
teaching the goodness of God and the requirements 
of his law. Perhaps sensuality, and violence, and 
falsehood, and religious tyranny, are no longer the 
prominent vices of the age. Perhaps a great and 
flagrant evil of our times is the want of Christian 
kindness and Christian care from man towards man; 
from those who are rich towards those who are poor. 
Perhaps the manner in which the rich pile up wealth 
in their storehouses, while the multitudes of the 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



173 



poor pine in nakedness and want, in filth and dark- 
ness, in ignorance and godlessness, in misery and 
despair ; — perhaps this has gone so far that it is a 
new evil under the sun. If it be so, then most fit it 
is that every Christian scribe, and every Christian of 
every class, who can bring forth out of his treasures 
some new thing that may abate this evil, some remedy 
for the new disease, should be held as doing accept- 
able service to the kingdom of heaven. So far as we 
find this to be so, let Christian mercy indeed shew 
her power by assuming new energies corresponding 
to this new demand. We know, that in the first days 
of Christianity, men laid at the Apostles' feet all that 
they had, rather than that their Christian brethren 
should want. We know that in ages of fierceness and 
blood, of darkness and ignorance, men, urged by the 
love of Christ, gave their substance to the perpetual 
support of the poor and the pious ; — to the perpetua- 
tion of Christian ministrations in every part of the 
land. We know that we are at present profiting by 
these things, which they of old brought out of their 
treasures. We owe to them what we have and what 
we are : — Christian truth, Christian worship, Christian 
order, Christian dignity. If, then, we, enriched and 
supported by these ancient bounties, find ourselves in 
the presence of new wants such as they supplied, new 
miseries such as they relieved, new dangers such as 
they averted, surely this is exactly the occasion when 
we are to shew what new things we can produce out 
of our treasure. Surely we, — thinking, it may be, 



174 



SERMON XI. 



lightly of the men of those ancient times, and little 
disposed to imagine them equal to ourselves, — we 
should seek to justify ourselves in this opinion, by 
doing something of the same kind which they did, 
now that a new need has come upon the land. Surely 
we cannot be content with doing a little, where they 
did so much. Here, indeed, the well instructed 
minister of the kingdom of heaven should urge these 
new claims which its new necessities give it ; and, 
rich in its wants, and powerful in its weakness, should 
bring these out, as new things from his treasures ; 
nor rest, nor pause, till these new demands have 
found a response in a new outburst of the fountains 
of Christian love and mercy, from all who bear the 
name of Christian. 

Such new things must the well instructed scribe 
bring out of his treasures. But he must also bring 
old things. For the greater part of the things by 
which men are acted upon are necessarily old. They 
are made what they are, in a great measure, by sur- 
rounding things ; which things, while they mould men, 
become, to their apprehension, old. Their parents, 
their education, their habits, their history, are all 
old things. And religions education, no less than 
secular, must consist in a great measure in what is 
old; and the history of religion, in its ordinary aspect, 
is necessarily old. With means drawn from these 
ancient stores, the Christian teacher must necessarily, 
for the most part, work. These things he must rever- 
ence ; for these he must teach reverence : for if these 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



175 



be not reverenced, there will be no reverence for 
anything, and all teaching will be futile. Largely 
therefore and constantly must he bring old things 
out of his treasures. And the old things of which 
we speak are not those which anciently were but 
have long been forgotten ; they are the old things 
which have reached to the present time. There may 
be many things which are so old, that they are for- 
gotten or removed, and may be now brought forth 
as new ; — they are not only old, but antiquated. But 
these are not the old things which the well instructed 
scribe will bring forth : at least, not as old things ; for 
by the very fact of their discontinuance, they have 
ceased to be a part of that current of human events 
which is ever renewing itself, and can now resume 
their place in it only as novelties. The old things of 
which we here speak, as opposed to new, are those 
which are old and familiar : the history, the institu- 
tions, the manners of our country, which have made us 
what we are : the familiar truths and fundamental 
convictions of religious faith, the habits of religious 
thought, and religious worship, and religious action. 
For though these, as we have said, ought to have in 
them a principle of life, which is ever new, they 
are to have in them a solidity of substance which has 
grown and accumulated through time. All these 
things : — national influences and character ; heredi- 
tary religion ; the labours of our fathers in the cause 
of goodness, the changes which their needs and their 
convictions have produced, and which are now among 



176 



SERMON XI. 



old things ; — all these, the Christian teacher will treat 
with filial tenderness and filial regard. And such feel- 
ings are among the old things which, he must bring 
out of his treasures in the service of the kingdom of 
heaven. 

Having thus considered in what sense the well- 
instructed scribe must bring forth out of his treasures 
things new and old, I will add two brief remarks 
on this subject. 

In the first place, if men, labouring to amend the 
evils of society by the only real restorative power, the 
power of a Christian spirit, profess to bring forth out 
of their treasures new things, let us by all means 
attend to them and agree with them, so far as they 
urge upon us a more diligent performance of our 
duties, and a greater love and care for our Christian 
brethren. It may be that, in such teaching, the 
evils of our times are exaggerated, or the comparison 
between these and other times distorted. But about 
this we need not be very careful. The evils of our 
time are at least grave enough, to make our best exer- 
tions to remedy them all too little. All that we have 
done, or are likely to do, in the cause of goodness, is 
at most not more than the most favourable view of 
the state of the world requires of us. We need not 
be afraid of doing too much good. We need not be 
afraid of driving poverty and nakedness, misery and 
squalidity, ignorance and brutality, to too great a 
distance from us. The reality of existing evils may 
be somewhat less than the representation ; but in a 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



177 



much greater degree have our remedial exertions been 
far less than the reality. Let us believe that the 
exigency is great ; that the case is new ; that all we 
have done is as nothing ; that something of quite a 
different scale, and in quite a different spirit, is requi- 
site ; that we must, in order to meet the occasion, 
renew the feelings of times when men gave to the 
needs of their brethren without reckoning and with- 
out limit. Let us believe this, and upon every occa- 
sion act on this belief: and so shall we assuredly 
gather to ourselves that which is good among the 
new things which men thus bring forth from their 
treasures. 

But again : although so far as this, we may with 
profit accept the teaching of those who dwell much 
upon new things, let not this occupation of our 
thoughts ever lead us to think much of ourselves, as 
of those upon whom some new light has risen, or to 
forget the reverence which is due to things that are 
old, and which no one can forget without losing the 
grace of humility and the comfort of a quiet spirit. 
Let us feel as keenly as we may our own duties, and 
the needs of our own time : but let us not think that, 
because much remains for us to do, they who went 
before us have done nothing. Let us not bring- 
forth our new things as if there were nothing old 
which deserved to be produced. Such a view would 
be altogether erroneous, as well as altogether unfilial. 
Our fathers, and their fathers before them, struggled, 
as we are called upon to struggle, with the kinds of 
w. c. s. N" 



178 



SERMON XI. 



evil, moral and social, which lay across their path. 
They did not do all they might have done : but have 
we ? They have left much for us to do ; shall not we 
leave much to our successors ? We have our plans, 
our hopes, our associations, our laws for the improve- 
ment of the world. Have we not, on every side of us, 
plans of theirs, which, if they had been carried out 
vigorously from their times to ours, would have averted 
half the evil? Have we not laws which, if they had 
been well executed, could have purified society ? 
Have we not associations, which, if their means had 
grown in the same proportion as the wealth of indi- 
viduals has grown, would have been able to carry the 
blessings of Christian piety and Christian teaching to 
vast multitudes who are now destitute and ignorant ? 
Let us advance as much as we will, beyond what they 
have done, or even thought of. Let us pour forth 
from our store new treasures, the increase of the old 
which we inherit from them. Let us bring the produce 
of our best toil and care, and present it as our offering 
for the good of man and the glory of God. Let us 
gather the deep, and the distant, and the precious, — the 
gold, and the frankincense, and the myrrh, and offer it 
at the feet of Him who alone is able to save and deliver 
us. But let all this be done, as beseems us, in most 
reverent humility of spirit. Let us recollect, while 
we offer our newest and richest treasures, that we are 
but followers of the good men of all ages, who, 
from the coming of our Saviour upon earth, even till 
now, have tried to obey his will, to further his pur- 



OLD THINGS AND NEW. 



179 



poses, and to diffuse among men the gifts which he 
obtained for them. And ! that we might be less 
unworthy successors of such ! that we may be en- 
abled to carry on the work which they have delivered 
to us ! that we may feel a portion of their love, of 
their zeal, of their godly fear, of their godly hope ! 
that we may, in their spirit, labour earnestly to work 
out both our own salvation, and the reign of Christ's 
Spirit among the children of men ! 

May God grant us this ! May He shed upon us 
this Spirit, give us this love and this hope ! May He, 
now that we seek communion with Him in the way 
which He has commanded, bring forth for us out of 
His treasures His precious things old and new: His 
ancient promises, His mystery prepared from the 
foundation of the world ; His continuance of the 
blessings which we have already enjoyed in His 
Church : His new heart, His daily supply of grace, 
His quickening impulses, the ever-growing consola- 
tion of His mercy and love ' 

This may He grant to all and every one of us 
through Jesus Christ our Lord ! 



SERMON XII. 



(1845. Easter Term.) 



Hebrews X. 24. 

Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to 
good worJcs. 

rpHE reception of the faith in Christ by any man, 
naturally prompts him to communicate to other 
men that which he himself has received. Having 
been enriched by so great a blessing, such precious 
privileges, he cannot but wish to impart them to all 
whom he loves ; and the doctrine of this very faith 
itself teaches him to love all mankind. His feeling 
towards every one whose attention he gains, is, "I 
would that both thou, and all that hear me this day, 
were both almost and altogether such as I am, except 
in earthly afflictions." He is debtor to all men; so 
far as the communication of Christian benefits is 
concerned: — not merely a willing benefactor, but a 
debtor; inasmuch as when he has given them all 
that he has yet been able to give, he still owes them 
more, for he ought to give more. He has received 
freely, and he is impelled to give freely. He has had 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



181 



a mystery made known to him which he must impart 
to all mankind, for it concerns them all. On this 
point the feeling of his heart is, "The love of God 
constraineth me." 

We see this feeling in the zeal and energy, the 
vigilance and perseverance, with which the Apostles 
diffused among Jews and Gentiles the truth of God 
which they also had received. Look at the conduct 
of St. Paul, for instance ! Almost as soon as he had 
been made acquainted with that great doctrine, that 
Christ came into the world to save sinners, he began 
to urge it upon others, and he made it the business 
of the remainder of his life to do so. In a few years, 
he had preached the Gospel to the east and to the 
west. Not only in Palestine, but in distant regions 
of that quarter of the globe, Phrygia and Galatia, 
Lycaonia and Pamphylia, he made the voice of the 
Gospel to be heard. And when, on the shore of those 
waters which divide that eastern region from our 
Europe, he saw that vision, for us so blessed, of the 
man of Macedonia who said, " Come over to us and 
help us ;" he gladly obeyed, and carried his Master's 
message onwards to the envious Thessalonians, and 
the noble-minded Bereans, the inquisitive Athenians, 
and the teachable Corinthians. He was soon able to 
say, as he does say to the Romans, (xv. 19,) "From 
Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have 
preached the Gospel of Christ." His thoughts and 
designs of spreading Christ's kingdom went much 
further. He exhorted the Roman Christians by let- 



182 



SERMON XII. 



ter, and gave to them that noble exposition of Chris- 
tian doctrine. He told them that he had for many 
years a great desire to come to them. But his desire 
did not stop there ; it was not bounded by the bounds 
of nations : it stopped only where the earth stopped, 
on the verge of ocean : " I will come to you, he says, 
(x. 24.) when I take my journey into Spain." And 
some have imagined that there was reason to believe 
that he went even further — even into these islands ; 
that the power of God might be made known as far 
as the power of man had extended. 

And this love and zeal in the diffusion of the 
news of salvation and the commands of Christ, thus 
shown by one of his servants, were but an example of 
the spirit which prevailed among them all. They all 
with one purpose and one spirit carried on the work 
of preaching and teaching, as a necessary consequence 
of their Christian profession, till the ends of the earth 
had seen the salvation of Christ. Nor were they 
content with a mere announcement of the scheme of 
man's salvation and the purport of Christ's commands. 
They were zealous also that those whom they had 
taught should not fall away from the truth which 
they had received ; that they should go on from faith 
to faith and from grace to grace ; that they should 
bring forth fruits worthy of their calling. 

And this solicitude for others, this desire to ad- 
vance the religious interests of men ; not only to 
make men Christians, but to make Christians more 
and more Christian ; — this, they taught, belonged not 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



183 



to them alone, but to all who had received the mes- 
sage of the Gospel ; to all who were called by the 
name of Christ. They were not merely to be ex- 
horted to love and to good works by their religious 
teachers, and to listen to such exhortations dutifully 
and gladly ; but they were to exhort one another 
daily, while it was yet called to-day, as the Apostle 
enjoins the Hebrews in the third chapter of his epistle 
to them, as well as in the chapter from which the 
text is taken. They were thus, not to be content 
with their own love, and their own good works, but 
were to provoke each other, as the text puts the pre- 
cept, to love and to good works : where of course we 
are to understand that it is Christian love and Chris- 
tian good works to which the Christian disciples, here 
addressed, are called upon to stimulate and excite 
one another ; each drawing other men from unchris- 
tian sloth, and coldness, and barrenness, by showing, 
in his own designs, and words, and actions, — all earnest, 
and kind, and beneficent,— something of the mind and 
Spirit which was in Christ. 

Thus the duty and the office of calling men to the 
faith and hope and charity of Christians ; — to Chris- 
tian love and Christian good works, did not belong 
only to the immediate Apostles of Christ who re- 
ceived from Him a special mission and extraordinary 
powers. It descended with their teaching to those 
whom they taught. To make men Christian was a 
part of the being Christian. The Christians were a 
Church, an ecclesia, a body called out of the general 



184 



SERMON XII. 



body of mankind. But they were called that they 
might invite all men ; they were called out that they 
might call all others in. They were a sacrifice salted 
with salt ; but they were the salt of the earth, — the 
element which was to preserve the whole world from 
corruption and mortal decay. They were the light 
of the earth, which was to shine more and more into 
the surrounding darkness, till the beams of Divine 
truth should girdle the globe, and shine on it where- 
ever it is shone upon by the natural sun. And this 
accordingly was done. The light of the Gospel shot 
on from land to land. The mountains of Atlas, the 
pillars of Hercules, the Teutonic forests, the Scan- 
dinavian shores, kindled with the blaze. Notwith- 
standing all the blindness, and perverseness, and 
wickedness of men, there was no land where some 
rays of God's word and God's grace did not penetrate. 

And it was not in words only, not merely by 
profession and verbal exhortation, that men showed 
their desire to promote the kingdom of Christ on 
earth. The powerful and the rich became ready to 
acknowledge that power and wealth belongeth unto 
God. The laws of States were made to echo the 
commands of the Gospel and the precepts of the 
Church. The magistrate bore the sword, no longer 
simply harmlessly to the Christian well-doer, but 
raised it in his protection and in the name of Christ. 
Those who were rich in this world, became ready to 
give and glad to distribute to the supply of their own 
spiritual needs, and also those of their Christian 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



185 



brethren, whose spiritual needs provided for, could 
best satisfy their Christian desires. Those who had 
large possessions employed them in making provision, 
as well as they could, that from their time through 
all time, there should continually be kept up the 
praise of God, the study of His word, the teaching of 
His will, the instruction of the ignorant, the comfort 
of the afflicted, the Christian consecration of all the 
offices, and relations of human life. 

We who are here this day, in every part of our 
lives, and not we only, but all the inhabitants of the 
land, owe our hopes, our comforts, our knowledge of 
the truth, the real dignity of our condition, to the 
bounty of the men of past ages. They, feeling as 
Christians should feel, wished that all who came 
after them in their own homes and neighbourhood 
and nation, should be Christians. And they so well 
performed what they wished, that the speech of our 
poorest fellow-countrymen calls all men Christians 
when it would designate that moral and rational 
dignity by which we are raised above the brute 
animals. 

In every corner, in every form, in endless usages, 
in unmarkt influences, in weekly ministrations, in 
daily offers of comfort, in ties that bind the highest 
and the lowest, the present instant and the remote 
past, we enjoy the benefits conferred by those, who, 
being themselves provoked to love and good works 
by their Christian teachers, sought to secure a per- 
petual succession of such teaching, by which they, 



186 



SERMON XII. 



through all succeeding time, might also provoke to 
love and good works the generations which should 
come after them. 

And this has been done at every period. From the 
ages which we often especially designate by speaking 
of their darkness, has this light especially shined 
upon us. From the times of national tumult and 
war and bloodshed, thus issues to us, out of many 
a sacred recess, the message of the gospel of peace. 
And, blessed be God! the stock of men thus filled 
with a truly Christian spirit of care for their brethren, 
has never failed or intermitted. There have been, 
even down to our own time, many men zealous of 
such good works. There have been from the times 
of the Apostles, we trust even to our own time, men 
who have acted upon the conviction of that which 
we have tried to express,— that Christians are a 
sacred company, a band dedicated to the service of 
God, whose business it is to spread the knowledge 
of God upon the earth ; to turn men from the power 
of Satan to the power of God ; to draw them from 
that untamed mood of men, in which lusts and angers 
place them in turmoil and variance, to the love of 
each other, to the thought of God, to the love of 
Christ, to the influence of his Spirit, to the imitation 
of his character. Christians are a Holy Priesthood 
set apart for this ministration ; a Universal Church, 
everywhere earnestly endeavouring to draw men into 
its fold; a perpetual body of Missionaries, in every 
country labouring among unbelievers, but always 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



187 



trusting that they shall turn some from their unbelief. 
They are, in all ages, and in every society, as their 
Divine Head and Founder at first described them, 
the leaven which is to go on leavening the lump, 
till the whole be leavened ; the tree which is to grow, 
till its branches spread over the whole face of the 
earth. And in fulfilling this their office, they will, 
if they are truly Christians, reckon no exertion, no 
privation, no sacrifice, too great. They are debtors 
to all men in virtue of their debt to Christ, and can 
never pay more than they owe. They have received 
vast benefits from the Christian benefactors of distant 
lands and past ages ; they are bound to repay them 
to the men of their own time, and their own land, 
first ; and then to the children of distant regions, and 
the sons of future ages. They have received a mes- 
sage full of grace and love, and must overflow with 
it, so that it may flow on to other men. They have 
been touched with fire from heaven, and must be a 
burning and a shining light upon earth. They have 
received the spirit of adoption by which they cry 
Abba, Father, and are bound, like their Great Teacher, 
to do their Father's business. 

Such considerations as these are often put for- 
ward when the preacher has it for his office to move 
his hearers to acts of bounty for some special object 
of Christian zeal ; — some particular mode of Christian 
teaching, or some particular occasion of Christian 
charity. And perhaps it may be, that by hearing 
such views of our Christian condition thus pressed 



188 



SERMON XII. 



upon us for particular purposes, we come to have, as 
it were, a suspicious and defensive feeling regarding 
them. And yet such a feeling is really a result of 
the self-opinion and self-seeking of the human heart. 
For no Christian truth is more true than that which 
we have been inculcating, that the Christian is bound, 
by all ties of love and duty which can have any hold 
upon him, to make it a main business of his life 
to unfold and extend those provisions and institutions 
by which Christian teaching and a Christian spirit 
are diffused among men. And it will be a salutary 
employment of our thoughts, now that we have no 
special application of such truths hanging over us, 
and, as it were, distorting our minds, to consider, as 
a subject of general self-examination and self-mo- 
nition, how far we have really accepted these truths 
into our minds, and made them a part of our inner 
life : how far they are become in us principles of 
doing and of being, by which, when the occasion 
arrives, our purposes and actions will be directed ? 

It will be well to consider this : and when we do 
so, do we not, many of us, too easily and too plainly 
discern, how far we are from the full possession 
of this active, diffusive, Christianizing Christianity! 
Even if we have thought seriously about matters of 
religion, — about the commands of God and the ordi- 
nances by which we are to be drawn to him, — have 
not our thoughts extended only to ourselves? Have 
not our views, of what was much and little in our 
Christian condition, been bounded by the application 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



189 



of Christian influences to our own souls ? Instead of 
urging God's commands upon others, have we not 
thought it much if we ourselves tried to obey them ? 
Instead of carrying the message of the Gospel to all 
that have ears to hear, have we not deemed it a great 
thing that we ourselves should listen to it ? Instead 
of labouring to diffuse everywhere to all men the 
benefits of Christian institutions, have we not been 
satisfied if we were willing in our own persons to use 
them? Instead of employing our labour, our time, 
our wealth, in extending and perpetuating established 
modes of religious benefit, have we not been content 
to live, so far as our religious life is concerned, upon 
the wealth of former ages, and to rest, for religious 
support, upon the things which they have estab- 
lished? It is, no doubt, really much, really a vast 
step, if we have applied religion to our own souls ; — 
if we have, each for ourselves, taken hold of the sal- 
vation of God: but there is yet more to be done. 
We are to look, not each on his own things alone, 
but also each on the things of others. And in pro- 
portion as we have really become children of God 
through Christ, we shall be zealous that all men 
should become, in that respect, our brethren, and 
should share with us in Christian privileges. If we 
have really made the first step in our Christian 
advance, we shall press forwards to make others. If 
we are full of the love and of the grace of God, we 
shall overflow and abound to other men. If we truly 
feel the privileges and blessings of religious ordi- 



190 



SERMON XII. 



nances and institutions, we shall desire and seek to 
extend, to all men and to all times, the same bless- 
ings and the same privileges. 

There is one way of looking at the matter, which, 
if we attend to it for a moment, will probably make 
many of us fear, that we have not attained to the 
full measure of this desire to impart to all men our 
Christian wealth, which is the best evidence that we 
are really rich in Christian treasure. Let us suppose 
for a moment that those who have gone before us, 
in this land, had not done this. Let us suppose that 
the men of former times had not, by the dedication 
of their temporal wealth to religious purposes, estab- 
lished, for us, the means of religious instruction, 
religious worship, religious supports and consolations. 
Let us suppose that we had not received, as our in- 
heritance from them, a land inlaid with the houses 
of God as with rich jewels, sounding with the voice 
of prayer and praise as with celestial music ; occu- 
pied by hosts of ministers ready to teach every man, 
to exhort every man, to console every man, as by 
heavenly messengers. Let us suppose that all reli- 
gious institutions which the bountiful piety of former 
ages has established in the land were wanting : — that 
all that points to heaven were absent, and that all 
that were present to our outward sense, were of 
the earth, earthy. Let us suppose this, and let us 
suppose too, that we were such as we are, in our 
spiritual condition : — that we had accepted, as truly 
and fully as we have, (and may that for each of us, 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



191 



be in all truth and fulness !) the Gospel of Christ ; 
that we had received, as completely as we have, the 
adoption, and thereon were prepared, according to 
the measure of our filial condition, to cry out to 
God, Our Father ! and to man, My Brother ! — that we 
had learnt, as thoroughly as we have, that the riches 
of this world are worthless, except as the means of 
doing in the world what God would have us do ; — 
suppose, I say, that we were such Christians as we 
are, in a land void of the Christian establishments 
which we have inherited from former times ; — does 
it appear to us, on a faithful examination of ourselves, 
that our piety is warm and earnest enough, — our 
estimate of the value of earthly wealth sufficiently 
moderate, — our wish to do good to the household of 
faith in all times sufficiently zealous, — to make it 
likely that we should have in that case supplied 
this void ; — that we should have done that which our 
ancestors had left undone : that we should have pro- 
vided for future generations what they have provided 
for us; — Churches, and Christian Offices, and Chris- 
tian Instruction, and the sway of Christian laws and 
the hope of a national, as well as individual, progress 
in the school of Christ. We sometimes look upon 
our fathers in former ages as dark and ignorant, 
as narrow-minded and bigotted, as fierce and tur- 
bulent. But let us ask ourselves, whether* we, how- 
ever much more clear-sighted, more instructed, more 
large in our views, and liberal in our judgments, and 
humane and soft in our demeanour; — whether we 



192 



SERMON XII. 



should have done, for the enlightening and instructing 
and humanizing the present and all future times, what 
they did. We think of these rude forefathers of ours, 
sometimes, it may be, with pity or contempt ; but 
surely we must exchange these emotions for reverence 
and gratitude, if we are compelled to judge, when we 
put the matter to ourselves, that they did more for 
religion and knowledge and universal charity, than, in 
their place, we should have done. And if we are thus 
compelled to deem that they were, in these things, 
superior to what we should have been, this conviction 
must surely humble and arouse us, when we find that 
we are thus forced to place ourselves below men whom 
we had placed so low in the scale of religous instruc- 
tion. Sometimes, perhaps, we look upon the workings 
of their piety as lavish or misguided ; and so, perhaps, 
in some cases they may have been. But yet it is not 
easy for us to be entitled to say that those men gave 
lavishly who gave in proportion to their estimate 
of the value of religious blessings ; and many of the 
appropriations of wealth to religious purposes in past 
ages, which the fancied wisdom of modern times 
would condemn as useless or mistaken, have been the 
source of precious benefits to mankind, which schemes, 
framed under the guidance of the wisdom of this 
world, would never have produced. And thus there 
appears to be nothing in aught we may say, respecting 
the ignorance, or bigotry, or rudeness, or prodigality, 
or errour, of these ancient benefactors of Christian 
communities, which can justly prevent our being 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



193 



abashed, as it were, in their presence, if, when we 
ask ourselves the question, we are compelled to con- 
fess that we are incapable of the like large and 
liberal works of piety ; the like devotion of our sub- 
stance, on fitting occasions, to the perpetual religious 
benefit of men. 

I would desire therefore, if through God's blessing 
it might be, to leave this thought impressed upon 
your minds, as one, not to be called up only on great 
and peculiar occasions, and then dismissed ; but as a 
principle of action, constantly ready to operate, and 
fit to guide the general scheme of your lives : — that 
what has been done, in the times of the most libe- 
ral piety, by the most bountiful benefactors of the 
Churches of Christendom, was not more than it was 
fitting for them to do ; and that we are not less 
bound, than they were, to such acts. They and we 
form part, as we trust, of the true disciples of Christ ; — 
of that band whose office it is, in all ages, to draw men 
through Christ to God : to urge upon them the Chris- 
tian faith, and hope, and love, which Christ has left 
among men as the vital principle of the world. They, 
our ancestors, have done their part ; at any rate, not 
more than their part. How are we worthy of our 
vocation and office, if, with the advantage of their 
example, we are able to do so much less than they 
have done? If, in matters concerning men's souls, 
in which they were earnest and bountiful, we are 
cold and penurious, how are we worthy, I will not 
say, of our Heavenly Father, but even of our earthly 
w. c. s. 



194 



SERMON XII. 



fathers? How shall we show that we have truly 
drunk the waters of life out of the fountains which 
they hewed, if we are too parsimonious, or too inert, 
even to keep the fountains in repair, and to carry 
on their waters wherever our brethren need the 
refreshing draught? 

This thought, as I have said, I would wish to 
leave impressed upon your minds as a general prin- 
ciple of action, which may stimulate and shape the 
conduct of all of us according to our stations, and 
means, and opportunities, and the occasions which 
our times may bring. We shall find abundant room 
for all the activity and bounty which such a principle 
may inspire. However much the piety and liberality 
of our predecessors has done, it has still left us much 
to do. If they have provided religious ministration 
and instruction for us, and if that provision remains 
to us, there is an abundant and over-abundant multi- 
tude of others, to whom we may supply these blessings. 
If we are allowed to lean upon the past, there is 
a weighty future to which we may lend a supporting 
hand. If our own house of God remains to us unshaken 
and inviolate, there are still a vast crowd of men wan- 
dering in the highways and hedges without shelter 
and guidance. If we are allowed to say to our soul, 
with regard to religious provision, Soul, thou hast 
much goods laid up for many years; we ought still 
to have our hearts open to the needs of those for 
whom such goods are not yet laid up, and who, 
except we provide for them, will be in a condition of 



DIFFUSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 



195 



religious destitution, of which, for ourselves, we are 
troubled by no fear. 

May God grant that this may be so ! May God 
continue to us, to our times, and to all future times, 
the great blessings of religious ministrations and 
gospel teaching, of national piety and national ordi- 
nances, which we have received from the ages that 
are past ! And may He give us a heart to show our 
sense of the value of these blessings, by using and 
securing them, and especially by doing our part 
willingly and fervently in diffusing and transmitting 
them to others. May we have, preserved to us, the 
privileges and treasures of a Christian Church ; and 
may we recollect that a Christian Church ought to 
be truly Apostolic and Catholic ; — not only an inhe- 
ritor of the blessings given through the hands of the 
Apostles, and a member of the Universal Church of 
Christ : but also Apostolic in its character and ac- 
tions, labouring constantly to win the unbeliever and 
to instruct the ignorant ; and Catholic in its aims, 
endeavouring perpetually to extend the influence of 
the true Church, till its operation shall include all 
classes and all mankind, and its spirit fill the uni- 
versal being of man. 

Of such a true Apostolic and Catholic Church of 
Christ may we each of us ever be, and ever show 
ourselves to be, true members ! This may God of his 
great goodness grant, through Jesus Christ our Lord ! 



O 2 



SERMON XIIL 



(1845. Michaelmas Term.) 



Matthew VI. 10. 



Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is 
in heaven. 



E use these words often. We utter them day by 



" " day, and it may be, many times a day: yet it may 
easily happen that we do not feel the full force and 
import of them. However closely our thoughts may 
accompany them in our ordinary prayers, there may 
perhaps be deeper thoughts, which may be still more 
fit companions for these heaven-taught utterances. 
However significant we may usually find them, there 
may be yet a fuller and larger significance, which 
they may disclose to a more earnest meditation. In- 
deed it can hardly be otherwise : for receiving their 
import and significance, as they do, from our relation 
to Almighty God, and from our thoughts of his 
government of us and of the world, it cannot be, but 
that matters, so large, so deep, so wide, so high, 
should assume new aspects, as we contemplate them 
more and more. And we may, at any rate, hope to 




THY KINGDOM COME. 



197 



be benefitted by this contemplation, since any views to 
which it may lead us, will not interfere with our con- 
tinuing to utter these petitions in the simplest and 
most obvious sense which we can assign to them. 
We may go on using these words, with the same 
thoughts with which we first learnt to use them, at 
our mother's knee ; and may yet believe that they 
are full of inexhaustible treasures of religious hope 
and consolation ; — of interminable prospects into the 
spiritual world ; — of a continual growth of brightening 
glories and elevating influences. 

Perhaps many of us have been accustomed to use 
this part of the prayer which our Lord taught us, as 
a declaration of resignation to his Will. We have 
been wont to employ it as an expression of the act by 
which we submit our will to his. in all the troubles 
and trials of this life ; and look onwards with hope 
and trust to another life, when all that disturbs and 
torments us here shall have passed away. We thus 
use the phrases now under our consideration, in the 
sense in which they are used elsewhere in Scripture : 
" Thy Will be done," as it is elsewhere used by Christ 
himself; " Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be 
done :" — " The Kingdom of God,'' as it is employed 
by St. Paul (2 Tim. iv. 1) : "I charge thee before 
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the 
quick and the dead, at his appearing and his King- 
dom." And certainly it is most fit that we should 
constantly cherish and confirm in our minds, by all 
means, and especially by continual prayer, after the 



198 



SERMON XIII. 



teaching of Christ and his Apostles, that disposition 
of heart which the words, so understood, express. It 
is most fit that we should, day by day, thus repeat 
our internal acts of submission to God's doings, — of 
resignation of our will to his, — of anticipation of his 
judgment, — of trust and hope in his mercy. We do 
well, if we continue to employ the words of our daily 
prayer in this sense ; — if we thus, in our hearts, say, 
day by day, morning by morning, and evening by 
evening, Thy heavenly kingdom come, and with it thy 
mercy and sanctification, thy joy and blessedness ; Thy 
will be done, whatever be the labours and struggles, 
pains and sorrows, which thou appointest to us in 
this our earthly passage to it. 

But yet, if we look at the words of our text, with 
a view to the meaning in which they would naturally 
be understood by those to whom they were first de- 
livered, we shall probably be led to ascribe to them 
a more extended sense than that of which I have 
spoken. When the disciples were taught to pray to 
God that His kingdom might come, — taught thus, by 
their great Master, whose teaching was, as they knew, 
the entrance to that kingdom ; — they could hardly 
fail to understand the expression, not only of the 
heavenly kingdom, which is to come when the things 
of earth are passed away, but also of that kingdom of 
God upon earth, which consists in a progress of all 
things towards that eternal kingdom. They would 
naturally understand, that in praying for the coming 
of God's kingdom according to Christ's instructions. 



THY KINGDOM COME, 



199 



they were praying for the manifestation and diffu- 
sion of Christ's power among men. When they, 
sitting at the feet of Jesus on that mount of divine 
teaching, learnt that they were to pray, saying, Thy 
kingdom come, they would think of that kingdom 
which had been foretold by the Prophets from the 
beginning of the world ; and of which the commence- 
ment was already before their eyes. The kingdom 
would come, they might rightly think, when the voice 
of that divine teaching should go forth from that 
sacred mount, and in all lands of the earth, sink into 
men's hearts, and mould their purposes and their 
actions. They had heard their Master say, that Blessed 
are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ; and 
along with this, Blessed are the meek, for they shall 
inherit the earth. They might well connect the one 
of these blessednesses with the other, and believe that 
the kingdom of God would then indeed come, when 
men should, everywhere and always, in all distant 
lands, in all coming times, receive that teaching, and 
seek and find that blessedness. And the habitual 
tendency of Christ's teaching was thus to make his 
disciples, as they became more and more instructed 
in his truth, regard the kingdom of God as including a 
spiritual progress of man's nature here on earth, and 
not only as being a sudden change of all earthly things. 
When he was asked, When the kingdom of God should 
come ; he plainly told them, The kingdom of God is 
not any great external manifestion that cometh with 
observation, so that men, amazed and startled say, 



200 



SERMON XIII. 



Lo it is there ! " The kingdom of God is within you." 
(Luke xvii. 20). When the disciples of Christ have 
learnt such things concerning the kingdom of God, 
and, with these things in their minds, say, after his 
command, Thy kingdom come; — they will naturally 
breathe forth the petition with such thoughts as this 
teaching suggests. — May thy kingdom indeed come 
within us ! May thy kingdom come within all men ! 
May we all become inheritors of the earth, by the 
power of meekness ; subjects of the kingdom of heaven, 
by being poor in the spirit ! May this thy kingdom 
be established in us, and may it extend from man to 
man, from land to land, from age to age, till all man- 
kind are subject to the sway of the kingdom ; till all 
men behave to each other as becomes the common 
subjects of such a kingdom ; till nations and their 
rulers, laws and institutions, public and private acts, 
come to be directed by the holy laws of the kingdom 
of God ! For then indeed will men most readily be 
able to lay hold of God's provisions for the sal- 
vation and exaltation of all the subjects of the king- 
dom through Christ, when they thus live in a Christian 
atmosphere, among men who are Christians indeed ; 
when, here upon earth, all the words and actions and 
plans of men savour of the hope and prospect of heaven. 

And with this teaching in our minds, the next 
clause also will be seen to have a reference to this 
kingdom of God upon earth. For though thy will 
be done, when considered alone, may be most fitly 
understood as an expression of entire resignation to 



THY KINGDOM COME. 



201- 



the Will of God, the expression, connected as it stands 
in the prayer, Thy will be done in earth as it is in 
heaven, manifestly refers to things in which man has 
to act, as well as to submit ; to serve, as the angels 
who are God's ministers, and not only to wait, as the 
willing worshippers. Indeed it has appeared to inter- 
preters of Scripture, — to some in the earliest as well 
as in the later times of the Church, — that this clause 
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, may 
be received as an explanation of the preceding one, 
Thy kingdom come ; as if God's kingdom would indeed 
be come, if men did his will on earth, as angels do 
it in heaven, with holy zeal, and love, and obedience, 
that never faint or fail. And we shall do well, so 
far at least to admit this view into our thoughts, 
that when we say to our Almighty Master Thy will 
be done, we accompany our words, not only with an 
internal resignation, whereby we submit to his Will, 
but also with an internal resolution to do his Will ; 
and further, with a supplication that we, and all men, 
may have strength and grace to do his Will, and to 
walk in his way. Thus to pray that God's Will may be 
done in earth as it is done in heaven, is to pray that 
his kingdom may come, in that meaning of his king- 
dom upon earth, of which we have already spoken ; 
and it is to pray that men may travel, and assist each 
other in travelling, towards that kingdom eternal, in 
the heavens, of which that earthly kingdom, if indeed 
it could include the whole earth in its circuit, would be 
a fitting portal, a shining passage to the eternal gates. 



202 



SERMON XIII. 



And in truth, when we pray for our fellow-men, 
what else than this can we pray for? for what else 
than this can we desire for them, ourselves placing 
all our hope in being, or in becoming, subjects of 
the kingdom? When God, in his goodness, allows 
and encourages us to offer up our supplications, not 
only for ourselves, but for all men, what better or 
other good thing can we ask for them, than that they 
may be drawn to him ? Are not all the benefits, all 
the blessings which we can wish for them, loving them 
with a Christian love, comprised in this, that by them 
and in them, the Will of God may be done on earth, 
as it is done by the angels in heaven, and that thus, 
for them and in them, there may come the kingdom 
of God? Does not this prayer, so conceived, include 
all blessings which we can imagine ; — all which are 
blessings in the sight of a servant of God and of 
Christ ; w hether blessings public or private, inward 
or outward, for our friends or our enemies, our 
Country or our Church. 

We have then abundant reason thus to pray as 
w r e are enjoined, that God's kingdom may come, and 
that his Will may be done on earth. And through 
the great goodness of God, we may utter this prayer, 
not without manifest ground for faith and hope ; not 
without a glimpse of a fulfilment of such a prayer, 
already commenced. For is not God's kingdom al- 
ready in some degree come, and has not the doing 
of his Will already begun ? The coming of Christ 
upon earth, which brought comfort to the mourners, 



THY KINGDOM COME. 



203 



and recovery of sight to the blind, was the first coming 
of the kingdom of God. His teaching was the pro- 
clamation of the kingdom ; by becoming his servants, 
men became free subjects of the kingdom. That was 
the beginning of the kingdom upon earth ; and from 
that beginning, it has gone on extending itself from 
nation to nation, and from age to age. All tribes and 
languages have heard the word of the kingdom ; 
many, in every clime of the globe, have received it 
gladly: some, in all nations, have brought forth its 
fruits. The mutual love, the purity and truth, which 
are laws of the kingdom, have been acknowledged 
everywhere, as worthy of the admiration and rever- 
ence of all men ; and being so acknowledged, they 
have, we trust, more or less sweetened and elevated 
the general course of men's feelings and desires ; and 
have softened the original harshness of laws and in- 
stitutions. Many of the more hardhearted and cruel 
modes of dealing, of men with men, are declining and 
tending to their end; some have already ceased. 
And recognized bonds of mutual good will, and care, 
and service, bind together the disciples of Christ in 
all lands, of all races and tongues, and make them 
gladly declare themselves fellow-subjects of one com- 
mon kingdom, the kingdom of God and of his Christ. 
In this view, we may pray to God that his kingdom 
may come; and may trust that from year to year, and 
from day to day, sometimes in one land and some- 
times in another, sometimes in the full eye of the 
world and sometimes in some obscure corner, some- 



204 



SERMON XIII. 



thing is done which forwards the progress of this 
kingdom, extends its boundaries, or enforces its sway. 

In this view, we may, day by day, pray to God 
in hope, that his kingdom may come. But our hope 
may well be reinforced by our fear and our grief, 
as influences which may add earnestness to our sup- 
plications. For if indeed something have been done 
and is doing, which a hopeful Christian may regard 
as the coming of God's kingdom on earth, because 
men in some degree strive to do his will ; yet alas ! 
how little is this something ! and how far more ob- 
vious to the common eye is the mass of human sins 
and sufferings, selfishness and apathy, which resists 
and seems to be untouched by the power of the king- 
dom of God ! And those who in some measure seek 
to be the children of the kingdom, how feeble are 
their efforts, how languid is their zeal, how cold 
their love, how weak their faith ! How far are they, 
the best of them, from doing the will of God in 
earth as it is done in heaven ! How plainly does 
the condition of the Christian world, of every land, 
for instance our own, of every neighbourhood, for 
instance our own, of every assembly of men, for 
instance ourselves; — how plainly, I say, does the 
condition of all around us, remind us how little men 
have commonly been doing to extend and establish 
God's kingdom ! Men have gone on, generation after 
generation, day after day, uttering with their lips, 
and, no doubt, in part supplicating in their hearts, 
Thy kingdom come, thy will be clone on earth as in 



THY KINGDOM COME. 



205 



heaven ; yet they have left to us God's kingdom on 
earth, seemingly scanty and hemmed in on every 
side by enemies, everywhere troubled and burthened 
with multitudes who deny its authority and resist 
its power, ill-provided with defenders and ambas- 
sadors, and with the earthly means that might forward 
its heavenly ends. Let us, in our prayers, think of 
these things, not so as to nourish in ourselves any 
complacency which may arise in looking at the de- 
fects of other men, but in order to strengthen our 
own zeal to carry on the task thus left so incomplete. 
Let us think of the sad and imperfect condition of 
God's kingdom on earth, in order that we may re- 
solve that, so far as we are concerned, his will shall 
be done ; — in order that we may resolve to do his 
will, not only for other reasons, but also, and emi- 
nently for this, that we may, by his blessing, help to 
bring about the fulfilment of that our daily prayer, 
that his kingdom may come. 

For example, as I have already said, the earthly 
means provided for the maintenance and extension 
of the kingdom of God in this land and in this em- 
pire, are far more scanty and slight than would have 
been provided, had the last few generations of our 
countrymen acted like men who really had a Chris- 
tian desire that the kingdom of God should come. 
When the first disciples of Christ saw the beginning* 
of his kingdom on earth, and had imparted to them 
the animating truth that they were called and com- 
missioned to extend it to the ends of the world, and 



206 



SERMON XIII. 



to carry its precepts and its power into every part of 
the business of life, they acted like men who indeed 
desired that His kingdom might fully come. They 
thought nothing too much to give, to do, to suffer 
for this end. No man said that any of the things he 
had were his own, when they might be used for the 
purposes of the kingdom. Men gladly spenf, and 
offered themselves to be spent, in the service of their 
Master. They shaped their plans, their labours, their 
studies, their lives, in conformity with the consti- 
tution of a kingdom of God upon earth : they might 
fitly and consistently pray, Thy kingdom come, thy 
will be done on earth as in heaven, for all their 
powers were directed to fulfil such an aspiration as 
this. And even in later times, in times which we 
now call dark and barbarous, men still spoke, and 
acted, and used such means and lights as they had, 
like men who deemed that their first and highest 
business was the service of God. The institutions, 
edifices, forms and possessions, which are the visible 
recognitions of the kingdom of God, in our own land 
and in other Christian lands, were the works and 
gifts of men of those rude and poor and stormy 
generations. 

Those who covered the land with houses of God, 
in which the people of the land, ten times told, as 
their numbers then were, might find place to wor- 
ship, and ministers to teach them, might, with some 
consistency, pray thy kingdom come. But how lightly 
must those later generations have used that prayer, 



THY KINGDOM COME. 



207 



who when the people grew and multiplied exceedingly, 
made no provision for their being subjects of the king- 
dom, or even hearing its Sovereign proclaimed ! What 
a dim vision and a languid belief of a kingdom of 
God upon earth, must those men have had, Statesmen 
and Churchmen, private Christians and public Magis- 
trates, who could allow multitudes of men to grow 
up, their fellow-citizens of an earthly state, with no 
attempt, — no attempt such as men make to do that 
about which they are in earnest, — to bring them, by 
teaching and preaching, into that better kingdom ! 
And do we not see, in many other matters also, this 
dim vision, this languid faith, with regard to the 
kingdom of God? Have not God's laws been com- 
monly regarded, not so much as helps to the puri- 
fication and elevation of our nature, by which we may 
be fitted, on earth, for the service of the heavenly 
kingdom, but rather, as merely means of maintaining 
and securing the earthly gifts which he has given us, 
worldly possessions and social tranquillity ? Have not 
the fields of human learning and human wisdom been 
cultivated as if their fruit were an all-sufficing food, 
and not (what they are,) merely a viaticum, a travel- 
ler's provision, to sustain and invigorate us in our 
pilgrimage towards the eternal city ? Have not men, 
in all these and many other matters, been habitually 
acting in a manner which showed little zeal, little 
hope, little joy in doing the Will of God? Has not 
their daily course been destitute of all impress of that 
prayer with which they began each day, Thy kingdom 
come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven t 



208 



SERMON XIII. 



This may have been so. There is but too much 
seeming that it has been so. But, as I have already 
said, if it seems to us that so it has been, the resulting 
impression to us must be, not one of self-satisfaction, 
but of carefulness and warning. Whatever may have 
been the neglects or defects of others, we, at least, 
should remember that there is a kingdom of God, 
for the coming of which we daily pray ; and that we 
pray idly and vainly, except we endeavour to promote 
this kingdom upon earth, in ourselves and in others, 
in our country and in our kind. We shall best derive 
benefit from the reflections in which we have been 
engaged, if we learn, from them, to join with the 
prayer of which we have been speaking, a resolution, 
that in us and by us, through the help of God's 
grace, his kingdom shall come : that so far as He may 
enlighten our eyes and strengthen our powers to see 
and to do, we will do all to further his great purpose, 
of establishing, among mankind and in ourselves, the 
empire of Christ's laws, and the realization of his 
Spirit : that this resolution shall direct us in all our 
doings ; in our private life, and in the part we take 
in public matters ; in our government of our actions, 
our words our thoughts ; in our studies and pursuits, 
our companionships and friendships, our plans of life 
and our modes of carrying them into effect. As we, 
several times a day, pray to God that His Kingdom 
may come, and His Will be done on earth, so must 
we, many times a day, think of the coming of that 
Kingdom, many times a day strive to do that Will, 
even as it is constantly done in heaven. 



THY KINGDOM COME. 



209 



And it may naturally be that the present time 
is, for many of us, a season most opportune for fixing 
in our minds such a resolution, and for beginning to 
educe^ from our daily prayers, such habitual thoughts 
and constant purposes. Many of you may be called 
upon, at the present period, to look, in a more dis- 
tinct manner than you have yet done, to the future 
plan of your lives ; — to determine, with the aid of 
those whom God has given you as your proper ad- 
visers and directors, what your course shall be; — to 
consider by what train of studies and employments, 
of labours and efforts, your appointed course must 
be run. May God's blessing be upon you, in this 
deliberation and choice, in the selection of the end, 
in the adoption of the means ! And that it may be 
so, may you recollect, and deeply and truly believe 
and feel, that, for a Christian man, all other ends 
should be subordinate and subservient to the coming 
of Christ's kingdom ! Your ends, as they appear to 
a superficial glance, may be many; but if they be 
chosen and pursued in the Spirit of Christ, there is 
none of them which may not be, not only consistent 
with your Christian welfare, but a portion of your 
proper work as Christ's servants. You may seek 
wealth or power, learning and knowledge, the respect 
of men and thq love of friends, provided only that 
you seek these as the means of God's service ; and 
show, at every step of your progress, by the use you 
make of that which you have acquired, that to serve 
God, and to extend the bounds of his kingdom, is 

w. c. s. P 



210 



SERMON XIII. 



indeed your highest aim. You may enter with all 
zeal and diligence into the pursuits which lead to 
honour and eminence among men, if you seek first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and con- 
sider honour and eminence as only higher and more 
earnest calls to seek that kingdom last as well as 
first ; — as the highest end of your daily actions, as 
well as the first condition of your acceptance with 
God. Look forwards, in this spirit, to the life that 
is before you ! May it, for each of you, be a com- 
plete and happy life, in every way, but most of all 
in this! May you, all of you, hereafter recollect the 
time when you began to utter, with a fuller appre- 
hension of its mighty import, that aspiration, Thy 
kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in 
heaven; and may you find, in that recollection, an 
influence which may ever guide you to the better 
choice in doubt, to the victory in temptations, to love 
and zeal and perseverance in all that may benefit your 
neighbours, your country, or your fellow-men. And, 
assembled as we now are here, connected by peculiar 
ties, and about to solemnize our Christian brother- 
hood by Christ's holy ordinance, let us be permitted 
to utter one more aspiration, which thus naturally 
rises in our hearts ; — that as you are here assembled 
for common purposes, bound by common laws, ani- 
mated by common hopes, aided by common supports; 
so, in after life, you may still he held together by that 
highest common object, the purpose of doing together 
the Will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven, and 



THY KINGDOM COME. 



211 



of being instruments in promoting the coming of 
his Kingdom. that this might be so ! Not small 
nor unimportant, so far as human aids avail, would be 
the aid supplied to the progress of the kingdom of 
God in this land, — this land, by God so favoured, 
yet to God so ungrateful ; by her children so belov- 
ed, yet, in the highest concerns, so ill cared for ; — 
not small nor slight would be the aid rendered to 
the coming of God's kingdom, if you, my younger 
brethren, who now hear me for the first time, would, 
from this time, bear in your minds the thought, that 
you are a family of brothers, whose common tie and 
common end is the promotion of Christ's kingdom 
in all the earth ; and, in the first place, in that part 
of the earth which is assigned to our care ; — if you 
would look upon yourselves, from this day, as a com- 
pany of champions, banded together in a great and 
holy cause, whose watchword and token is Thy king- 
dom come, Thy will he done in earth as it is in 
heaven. 



SERMON XIV. 



(1846. Lent Term.) 



Acts XXVI. 29. 

And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but 
all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether 
such as I am, except these bonds, 

"TTOU will recollect these words as the address of 
^ St. Paul to King Agrippa, when, brought before 
him as a prisoner, and permitted to speak for him- 
self, he had given an account of his own wonderful 
conversion by the appearing of Him whom he had 
persecuted, and had appealed to the Prophets for 
confirmation of the faith which he had embraced ; and 
when the King had said in reply, " Almost thou per- 
suadest me to be a Christian," he said, "I would to 
God, that not only thou, but all that hear me this 
day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, 
except these bonds." In these words we see, ex- 
pressed in a strong and pointed manner, the Apos- 
tle's high estimate of the privileges of Christians; 
his earnest desire to impart these privileges to all 
whom his words could reach ; and his willingness and 
wish that others should have greater privileges than 



THESE BONDS. 



213 



himself, if only this was consistent with their Chris- 
tian condition. 44 1 am a Christian: — I rejoice and 
glory in being such : — I would that they, and all who 
now hear me, were not almost, as thou speakest, but 
altogether Christians as I am ; but I would, too, that 
they were more favoured than I am in this respect, 
that they were Christians in circumstances, in which, 
to be a Christian, did not place a man's body in prison, 
and his hands in chains ; — that they were Christians 
indeed, and Christians in a Christian world; or at 
least, in a world which did not hate and persecute 
Christians." These feelings ran through the whole of 
Paul's life, and are often expressed with the like 
energy on other occasions ; as when he tells the Co- 
rinthians of what he has done and suffered, (1 Cor. ix. 
22) that he might by all means save some. "And 
this," he says, 44 1 do for the Gospel's sake, that I 
might be partaker thereof with you ;" as if it were 
not enough to say, 44 that you might be partakers 
thereof with me ;" and as if his own participation 
even in the Gospel itself, had in it something not 
quite satisfactory, except he could also impart it to 
others. And this wish grew all the stronger, in the 
adversities and distresses under which he had to per- 
form this task ; (2 Cor. xi. 26.) in his perils, his wea- 
riness and painfulness, his watchings, his hunger and 
thirst, cold and nakedness, his intercourse with stripes, 
prisons, and deaths. From these inflictions, indeed, 
he wished his followers to be free. He would not 
even that they should be burdened with his support. 



214 



SERMON XIV. 



But as to himself, he was willing to spend and be 
spent, that he might draw all men to Christ, and 
make him known and believed in, and obeyed and 
loved, to the ends of the earth. 

This mind, which was in St. Paul, will also be in 
all true disciples of Christ. Their Christianity is 
communicative. They have found the Lord gracious ; 
and the feeling of their hearts prompts them to cry 
to those who are near, and to those who are afar off, 
O come and see how gracious the Lord is ! — or 
rather, come and know how gracious the Lord is ! 
know Him gracious to yourselves ! They perceive 
that through Christ alone, can their foulness be 
cleansed, and their darkness lightened, and their 
meanness elevated, and their coldness warmed ; and 
they would that this cleansing and raising, this light 
and warmth, should spread to others, and go on from 
man to man, through the whole human race. They 
perceive that in the union of Christians in Christ, 
and in their union with Christ, there is a means of 
diffusing a blessedness, even here upon earth, which 
no other power can produce ; and hence, they would 
have all men members of that heavenly body. But 
yet they feel themselves, in many ways, sore let and 
hindered in pursuing the paths to which this impulse 
points ; — in advancing to the realization of this Chris- 
tian hope. They feel themselves fettered and im- 
peded in their Christian course ; — constrained and 
confined in their efforts to draw men to Christ, and 
in their attempts to enjoy the blessings of a union 



THESE BONDS. 



215 



with those who call themselves Christians. So far as 
a man feels himself truly the disciple of Christ, — 
truly reconciled to God through Him ; truly raised 
by Hirn above the condition of those who look to 
this life and this world only for their good ; truly 
united with all those who hallow his name, and look 
for the coming of his kingdom, and do his will ; — so 
far, he is tempted to cry out, to those who as yet 
are not under this discipleship and within this com- 
munion, "Would to God that both thou and all that 
hear me were such as I am;" — but when he feels 
too — as even in the happiest times of his Christian 
life he cannot but feel — the bondage under which he 
labours, — the external and internal bondage, — the 
bondage of sin and ignorance, and coldness, and self- 
ishness within him, — the bondage imposed upon him 
by the things without, by the worldliness and luke- 
warmness, the want of faith, and love, and zeal, and 
unity, which prevails among his fellow-Christians, 
with whom he is inextricably bound up in his actions, 
and whose inertness, or discord, or opposition, may 
often impede and defeat all of good that he would 
do ; — he can no longer deem it an unmixed blessing, 
a full privilege, to be such as he is ; and he is com- 
pelled to limit the reference which he makes to his 
own condition, as exhibiting the value of the Christian 
condition :— he no longer prays for other men, even 
for those who have as yet no knowledge of Christ, 
that they should be such as he is, simply ; but that 
they should be " such as he is, except these bonds" 



216 



SERMON XIV. 



Thus then it is : — the desire of the Christian that 
other men should be such as he is, so far as regards 
his being a Christian, is an essential part of Christian 
love, an inevitable exercise of Christian faith and 
hope. The Christian desires that the knowledge of 
Christ, and the spirit of his teaching, should extend 
to all regions of the earth, to all classes and con- 
ditions of men in the society in which he lives, to 
all the kinds of action and business in which men 
are engaged. He rejoices in the liberty with which 
Christ has made him free, and he desires that in this 
respect all men should be such as he is. But he 
knows too surely that his liberty is imperfect. He 
belongs, indeed, to that body to whom St. Paul said, 
(Rom. vi. 17.) "Ye were the slaves of sin. ..but being 
made free from sin, ye became the servants of right- 
eousness." But he feels that his new service is in- 
completely discharged ; — that the brand of his former 
slavery is still upon him ; — that his chains, though 
broken, still cling to him ; — they hang from his wrists 
and weigh down his arms, even while he lifts up his 
hands to his Father who is in heaven; — their clank 
sounds in his ears, even through the voice of his 
prayers and praises; — and when, in the fulness of 
his love for those whom Christ has taught him to 
love, that is, for every son of man, — he utters his 
vehement aspirations, that each might become a par- 
taker in the blessed liberties and privileges of the 
children of God; in the largest expression in which his 
wishes find utterance is that, " Would to God that 



THESE BONDS. 



217 



thou wert such as I am, except these bonds" — these 
bonds of sin and ignorance — of imperfect service and 
broken obedience — of scanty and wavering faith, and 
hope, and love. 

But again: — Christians do not stand single and 
detached from each other. No one liveth to himself, 
and no man dieth to himself The union of believers 
with Christ leads to their union with one another in 
Christ. They are members of a spiritual body. To 
be a Christian, is not merely to have individual bless- 
ings and individual hopes ; but in addition to these, 
or rather, as the means of obtaining these, to belong- 
to a Christian community. Christ and his Apostles 
not only taught men Divine lessons, and proclaimed 
to them the precious promise of a Divine inheritance, 
but also founded a society, the purpose of which 
should be to continue to all ages, and to extend to 
all nations, this teaching ; to bind men to each other 
by the knowledge of their common interest in Christ, 
and of his all-embracing love to them ; to mark, by 
solemn acts, the introduction of men into this society, 
and their communion with each other, and with 
Christ, their perpetual head. This is implied in 
being a Christian ; and when we persuade men to be 
Christians, we persuade them to enter such a society 
as this. And the Christian, who belongs to this 
society, is, by that very circumstance, impelled to 
desire that all men should belong to it. He knows 
the blessings which this society is fitted to diffuse 
upon earth ; — peace and good-will, justice and right- 



218 



SERMON XIV. 



eousness, purity and holiness : — he knows that in this 
society alone are to be found the means of that eter- 
nal mercy of God to men, which they will need after 
this earthly life is over, and without which, earthly 
possessions are of no value or profit ; — he knows that 
all men are permitted, are incited, are urged, to unite 
themselves to this society, by the voice of its great 
Head. He knows that Christ died for all, and com- 
manded him to love all men : that Christ is the first- 
born of many brethren, and that all mankind may 
join this family of brethren, and become joint-heirs 
with Christ, of the immortality which He brought 
to light. He loves those who are already Christians, 
because they are his brothers in Christ; and those 
who are not, because they may, and he earnestly 
hopes, will, become such. To his eye, those who are 
still in darkness and in the shadow of death, are only 
men who have not yet entered into the region where 
the true light shineth : there are for him no out- 
casts, for his Lord has said, " Him that cometh to 
me I will in no wise cast out." The Christian family, 
in its tendency and capacity, embraces ail mankind. 
In the ancient time it was felt to be a right saying, 
fitly recognizing the tie by which the whole family 
of mankind are bound together as kindred, when one 
said, " I am a man, and nothing that is of man is of 
no concern to me :" in like manner, he who has the 
Spirit of Christ and his Apostles, says, "lama Chris- 
tian, and to me all men are Christians ;" — Christian, 
that is, so far as to be included within the circum- 



THESE BONDS. 



219 



ference of Christian brotherly love; — Christian, so 
far as to have in them a Christian element, which it 
is my earnest desire to see unfolded and expanded ; — 
Christian, so far that I would fain see established 
among them the means of profiting by Christ's coming 
upon earth ; — Christian, so that I would have the 
society which Christ founded recognize them as its 
members, and would have them, in turn, recognize 
this society as the teachers of God's truth, and the 
means of God's grace. "I belong to this society; 
and in this respect, I would that all men were even 
as I am." 

This indeed is so. It is most natural and most 
fit that the Christian should thus wish that all men 
belonged to this Society, the Church of Christ. But 
this Society, extending into all nations, and dealing 
with the differences of history and institution by 
which men, in different nations, are separated, di- 
vides into many members. And these members, that 
is, the Christian Community in each country, neces- 
sarily has reference to the Institutions and Rulers of 
each country. This is necessarily so ; for Christians, 
in the same breath in which they are told to love 
the brotherhood, are also commanded to honour the 
king : they are to render tribute to whom tribute is 
due, custom to whom custom, honour to whom ho- 
nour. And indeed this bearing of each man's Chris- 
tian upon his National condition, is not the ground 
of a duty of submission merely, but, especially when 
the nation comes to be a Christian nation, it is also 



220 



SERMON XIV. 



a constant occasion of innumerable duties ; of Chris- 
tian works of justice and righteousness ; — of Christian 
labours of love. For a man's possessions and rights, 
which the national law assigns to him, — the liberty 
of action and authority of position, which he has by 
the national constitution; — the means of providing 
for the future, and the remote, which his share in 
the national concerns gives him ; — these are his in- 
struments of action ; — these are his very means of 
discharging his duties; which, to a Christian, must 
be Christian duties; — these are his Talents, for the 
employment of which he must render an account. 
It cannot be therefore, but that his business as a 
Christian must be regulated and modified, in many 
things, by his condition as a citizen of his own nation. 
He has to act, not as a solitary and insulated indi- 
vidual — not as a man who is in the nation but not 
of it, an alien, not a denizen ; — he has to act as a 
part of the nation ; as one citizen joined by civil ties 
to other citizens. And this being so, his actions must 
often be fettered and constrained by these ties; — 
and especially, if he be a man in authority, acting, 
in a larger or smaller sphere, on the part of the com- 
munity, he may often be sore let and hindered in his 
Christian actions. Though he has to act as a Christian 
man for Christian men, he may often, when his heart 
is full of zeal and love, be compelled to withhold 
or restrain the movements of his hand ; — when he 
would, on the part of his fellow-Christians, and as 
their minister, do away with some foul injustice or 



THESE BONDS. 



221 



savage cruelty ; or carry the news of Christ's coming 
and the promise of his redemption to remote regions 
of the earth ; or establish, or strengthen, and con- 
tinue the fabric of a Christian Church within the 
confines of his nation ; or extend the blessed influ- 
ences of such a fabric through all the lands which 
look for spiritual guidance to the national center ; or 
carry the teaching of God's commands and promises 
into the heart of the crowds that, with the national 
growth, spring up in dark, and waste, and destitute 
places ; — while he burns and yearns thus to draw 
men within the pale of Christ's Church, and is never- 
theless compelled to refrain by the ties which his 
place, and his connexion with other men, impose 
upon him ; — he may well be prompted to cry out, 
to those whom he is thus reluctantly compelled to 
leave standing outside of Christ's fold, without being 
able to stretch out a hand to bring them in, " Would 
to God thou wert such as I am, except these bonds." 

This may often be the feeling of Christian men, 
in places of authority, in a community which calls 
itself Christian. They may often mourn, in bitterness 
of heart, that nations calling themselves Christian, 
and rejoicing in the abundance of wealth, and power, 
and energy, should yet refuse to use any portion of 
their wealth and power and energy for the assertion 
of Christian righteousness and truth, — for the pro- 
motion of Christian teaching and Christian pastoral 
care. But on this let us not dwell. Let us suppose 
that there are solid reasons for this inaction ; — that 



222 



SERMON XIV. 



the bonds which bind men from acting in such cases 
are real and strong; — that they are not the bonds of 
spiritual coldness and carelessness, — of want of faith 
and hope and love; — but the bonds of some external 
and inextricable entanglement, — some iron necessity, 
to which men, with truly Christian hearts, must never- 
theless yield. If this be so, still let us recollect, for 
our own warning and guidance, that these are bonds 
which bind men only in their public acts. These 
bonds may prevent men, who are Christians, from 
trying to make other men such as they are, by any- 
thing done on the part of the community, when its 
actions are guided by them ; but still, these bonds do 
not bind men in their acts as individual Christians. 
By such acts, at least, they may shew the sincerity 
of their desire and prayer that all men should be 
such at they are, except their bonds, — the bond of 
sin, which makes them unfit examples,— the bond of 
necessity, which limits their efforts within a private 
sphere. If they have indeed in them the love of 
Christ, constraining them to make all men partakers 
of his precious gifts, they will free their hands from 
those public manacles, in such manner that they 
may be able to impart somewhat of spiritual food to 
their brethren that sit afar off, in the outer darkness, 
or in the nether mire. Such a one will not be con- 
tent with merely saying, " I would that thou and all 
were such as Christians are ;" but he will lend his 
aid to make them such. He will join in the great 
task of teaching Christ's Gospel to all, which is in- 



THESE BONUS. 



223 



cumbent upon all;— upon the people as well as the 
ministers of Christ; — the young, as soon as they 
themselves have learnt, as well as the old, who, too, 
must still have much to learn. This great task of 
diffusing, further and further, deeper and deeper, the 
spirit of Christ's Gospel, belongs, I say, to all men ; 
is a rule for all times, all occasions, all parts of our 
conduct. We are to promote this object, by our lives 
and conversation, by our labours and studies, by our 
use of the things of this world, as well as by our 
reference to the world to come. If we were indeed 
and truly Christ's, in heart and soul, how natural, 
how inevitable would this be ! When the early Chris- 
tians were first made to feel the Christian dispen- 
sation as a reality, each man said not that any of the 
things he had was his own ; — he did not cling to it 
a moment, after it appeared that the occasions of 
Christ's Church required it of him. And those who 
received the Gospel of Christ gladly, gladly also 
spread its tidings, and taught its doctrines, and drew 
their fellow-men, as St. Paul wished to do, to be par- 
takers with them in that Gospel. 

This was what the first Christians did; and how 
are we their successors, if we have no portion of 
their spirit? If we are indifferent to the extent 
and power of Christ's kingdom on earth, how do 
we ourselves really belong to it? How do we be- 
long to that kingdom, of which the character is, 
that the poor have the Gospel preached to them? 
How are we advancing towards that condition in 



224 



SERMON XIV. 



which the kingdoms of this world shall be the king- 
dom of God and of his Christ ? How are we winning 
for ourselves the hope that when the great day shall 
come, we may hear our Master say to us, " Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant : enter thou into 
the joy of thy Lord?" 

Brethren ! this our life is short. Our earthly 
labours, if we labour, will soon be done. Our day- 
light, whether we work or not, will soon be gone. 
All the time, all the light, we have, is far too little 
for us to do such work as the progress of Christ's 
kingdom requires ; — to manifest our love of our bre- 
thren, so as to show that we feel Christ's love to 
us; — to aid in spreading the light of the Gospel, 
so that it may fill all the chambers of this our earthly 
mansion. We stand at different points of our pro- 
gress ; the youngest of us not too young to begin 
his task, as God's servant ; the oldest of us, assuredly 
with much of his task still to do. We stand at 
various stages of our earthly career. Some of us 
may have many other forms of the work of life 
allotted them, after they pass from this place ; — 
may have to labour in a larger sphere, with greater 
means, with different objects. Others of us may look 
upon this as our allotted place of labour, and may 
humbly and gladly seek how, in it, they can best 
do their Lord's will. But however that be, the main 
thing is, to recollect that we have a task, — the same 
task which St. Paul had, however different in form ; 
and that the time allotted, for those to whom it is 



THESE BONDS. 



225 



largest, cannot be long. Well for us, if when the end 
draws nigh we can say with St. Paul (2 Tim. iv. 6), 
" The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith, and have shown the fruits of faith 
unfeigned, in love unwearied. I have been willing 
to spend and be spent in the service of my Father 
who is in heaven, and I resign my soul into his hands, 
in the hope and trust of his mercy and peace." Bre- 
thren ! such thoughts are at all times suited to our 
condition and wholesome for us. At this time espe- 
cially they come to our minds very naturally and 
solemnly; for it is not many days since one was 
called away from his labours, to whom we here were 
accustomed to look with reverence and affection ; and 
who long performed his task among us here, and 
directed us in ours 4 ". We, whose privilege it was 
to labour with him and under him, know well how 
zealous and unwearied he was in the service of his 
Lord. He was a faithful and diligent servant of 
Christ ; and he was ever ready to labour in the spirit 
of St. Paul's words, "would that all that hear me 
were such as I am, except these bonds." He used, 
for the performance of that task of the moral and 
intellectual and religious culture of men at which 
we here have to work, those means and instruments 
which the Providence of God had put in his hands, 



* The Reverend Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Master of the 
College from 1820 to 1841. 

w. c. s. Q 



226 



SERMON XIV. 



by placing him here; and he made it his business, 
too, to add to those means and instruments, to make 
the material framework and provision of the goods 
of this world by which our labours are aided, larger, 
more worthy, more secure against decay and failure, 
more fitted to expand with the growing needs of 
advancing time. He was ever ready to cheer and 
encourage those who were fainting in their task, to 
remind them of the objects, the hopes, the promises 
by which they ought to be supported through the 
heat of the day, till the evening should come. And 
not here alone, but wherever the work of a Christian 
was to be done, was he ready to share the toil and to 
lend his aid. Wherever any were found to labour 
in the spirit of St. Paul — to carry the blessed tidings 
and gracious influences of Christ's teaching to the 
poor and needy, the dark and ignorant, the distant 
and desolate, he was ever willing to join in their 
labour. He well loved his nation, and all the in- 
stitutions by which a good Providence has, generation 
after generation, blessed it above the nations of the 
earth : but most of all, he loved that institution by 
which the nation is made a member of that glorious 
society which Christ instituted upon earth, to be 
the channel through which the treasure-stream of 
his divine love should flow to the dwellers in the 
land : this precious institution, the Church of Christ 
in the land, he guarded and served with a true filial 
love, looking through its ordinances to God and to 
Christ, for his consolation in life, his hope in eternity. 



THESE BONDS. 



227 



And in this hope, he welcomed the voice of his 
Father, calling him to his home. 

Brethren ! may we too, whenever the day shall 
come, hear that voice in submissive trust and hope. 
And that we may do this, may we, too, labour with 
all diligence at our task, whatever that be, which 
God has appointed us to do ! May we, too, accept 
our office, whatever that be, in Christ's kingdom on 
earth ; and ever strive to enforce his commands, to 
imbibe and diffuse his spirit ; to extend his power 
among men; to make it more and more widely 
recognized, more and more truly felt ! May we, too, 
do all things as in the eye of our Master, not too 
confident, yet never desponding; looking to his pro- 
mises, and never relaxing our own efforts. 

May He strengthen us to do this, and support us 
in the doing of it, through His gracious answer to 
our prayers; through His blessing upon His ordi- 
nances ; and so unite us to Him, in His service here, 
that we may be united to Him in His peace and joy 
hereafter ! Amen. 



Q2 



SERMON XV. 



(1846. Easter Term.) 



Romans VIII. part of Terse 28. 

And we Jcnov: that all things work together for good to 
them that love God. 

T)ERHAPS the things which St. Paul had in view 
in this passage, as all working together for good 
to them that love God. were not primarily and prin- 
cipally the things which make up the texture of man's 
daily life, but more especially the things which belong 
to the dispensation by which God redeems and saves 
his people. Perhaps St. Paul did not refer mainly 
to the pleasures and pains, the prosperity and adver- 
sity, which alternate with each other in the course 
of each man's worldly career ; but to the providential 
arrangements by which each man is called to God's 
salvation, and has his place assigned him in God's 
Kingdom. For. a few verses earlier he had spoken 
of the earnest expectation of the creature; — of the 
groaning and travailing of the whole creation ; — -and 
these feelings of anxiety and distress were not repre- 
sented as the effect of mere worldly calamity. — of 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 



220 



bodily pain or material loss ; — they were the utter- 
ances of a spirit groaning to be delivered from " the 
bondage of corruption ;" — they were the yearnings 
of the soul waiting for "redemption" and " adop- 
tion ;" — they were the stirrings of a hope for " the 
glorious liberty of the sons of God." And all these 
things. — all the things which, formerly, hid in the 
darkness of an imperfect and unfinished dispensation, 
had pressed upon men's spirits with vague oppressive 
pains, like the terrors of the night, though now melt- 
ing away in the rising light of the Gospel, yet still 
had left portions of gloom and doubt and fear and 
perplexity hanging in the atmosphere, like the frag- 
ments of a thunderstorm which is past. The Spirit 
made intercession for man's weaknesses and faults, 
but it was with inarticulate groans which implied 
mysterious and obscure distresses. And now, — the 
hearts of them who thus sought relief were to be 
supported and cheered, not by certainty, but by 
hope, — not by evidence, but by trust. And this trust 
it is which St. Paul expresses in the verse from which 
my text is taken. We know, he says, we confide, we 
do not doubt, that all things work together for good 
to them that love God. We believe that God in his 
goodness has ordered all things for the best, and for 
the real welfare of his true servants ; — all that past 
darkness and fear and pain ; — all this present twilight, 
and struggle, and hope ; — all his prophecies and pro- 
mises, his glimpses of light, and whisperings of com- 
fort, disclosing yet holding back of joy ; — all those 



230 



SERMON XV. 



ancient restrictions and rigid ordinances; — all the 
removing of boundaries and extension of privileges 
which is now going on; — all the struggle and con- 
troversy which these changes occasion ; — all the anger 
and fear and discord and menace to which these give 
rise ; — all these things, however inauspicious in their 
aspect, work together for good to those that love 
God. They are necessary accompaniments of the ex- 
tension of God's Kingdom here ; — they may all serve 
as aids to us in our pilgrimage to that brighter and 
serener region, where God wipes away all tears from 
all eyes. And accordingly, so it was. This trust in 
God was confirmed by the event. To Paul himself, 
we see the good becoming more and more an object 
of consciousness, as his life of labour and warfare 
draws to its close. He is ready to depart and to be 
with Christ, and he knows that this is far better. 
And while he still sojourned here, he had the satis- 
faction of seeing his Master's work go on on every 
side of him ; — forwarded even by contention and ill- 
will ; — promoted even by those who sought to add 
affliction to his bonds; — ever washing with its ever- 
spreading waters Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and Bar- 
barians, bond and free; — making its way from the 
Synagogue to the Hill of Mars, from the Jewish 
Temple to the Roman Tribunal, from the prison to 
the Palace of the Caesars; so that he too, like his 
fellow-labourer in the isle of Patmos, might hear a 
voice proclaiming that the kingdoms of this world 
were becoming the kingdoms of God and of his 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 



231 



Christ. And thus, in the progress of the dispensation 
which was committed to him, and in the bearing 
which all the spiritual struggles of mankind had 
upon that progress, which is perhaps, as I have said, 
the primary subject of our text, he had good reason 
for his hope and trust, when he declared that "all 
things work together for good to those who love 
God, and are called according to his purpose." 

But we need not thus restrict the view of the 
things which work together for good to those that 
love God. We need not consider that the words 
apply merely to the inward troubles of the spirit, 
and apparent inequalities of religious opportunities 
by which those who love God are all, in the end, 
led to him. We may very fitly extend our notion 
of the things included in this expression of trust, 
to all that can happen to man. St. Paul himself, 
in this passage, shows us how easily and naturally 
the sentiment of trust in God which he expresses, 
embraces, in its matter, external as well as internal 
conflicts and privations, the inflictions of men as well 
as the dispensations of God. A few verses later he 
follows out this expression of trust into those noble 
interrogations of which the words live in the Chris- 
stian's memory, like the echoes of a trumpet pro- 
claiming a victory, " Who shall separate us from the 
love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or per- 
secution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" 
Nay, this cannot be ; " in all these things we are 
conquerors, and more than conquerors, through him 



232 



SERMON XV. 



that loved us." Here we have a terrible array of 
the sorest and direst evils, as men deem them, which 
beset the course of human life : and over these, 
St. Paul declares that the true servant of Christ is 
conqueror, and more than conqueror. These are 
among the things that work together for good to 
them that love God. They seem to be malignant and 
powerful enemies. They advance towards him with 
dark and menacing aspects, with raised hands and 
terrible weapons, with harsh and fierce cries, as if 
he were their prey and their victim ;■ — as if he were 
given up to them to be subdued and tormented with- 
out help or rescue. But God tames them to his 
purposes, and makes them work for him, and work 
for good. He bends their necks, and wrings their wea- 
pons from their hands, and binds them to the chariot- 
wheels of his true servants, whom he sends onwards 
in triumph. And so it is with all other things; — all 
events, prosperous or adverse; all clays, white and 
black ; all friends and enemies ; honour and disgrace ; 
gain and loss ; health and sickness ; strength and weak- 
ness ; joy and sorrow ; life and death ; all these things 
work together for good to them that love God. 

Such is the trust expressed by the Apostle in 
this passage. We, too, believe that this is so. We 
believe, as he believed, in the wisdom and goodness 
of God ; — that he can, and that he will make all 
things work for good. But with us, my brethren, I 
fear — and do not your own hearts respond to the 
fear? — that this trust is very often a feeble and in- 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 



233 



effective thought, not a strong and vivid sentiment ; — 
an assent of the intellect to that which we may not 
allow ourselves to doubt or deny, not a feeling of the 
heart, real and deep, springing up on every occasion 
before the intellect has time to offer her aid ; — a 
second-hand knowledge as of something which we 
have been told by another, not a true and genuine 
knowledge like that of St. Paul, when he says, " We 
know that all things work together for good to them 
that love God," 

Do not our hearts tell us, many of us very loudly, 
all of us in some degree, that this is the case ? — that 
our trust that all things work together for good is 
very feeble and interrupted, compared with what it 
should be ? — that we require to have this trust far 
more constantly and vividly present to us than we 
have ? It may well be that this is so. But if this be 
the case, let us try to gather some benefit from this 
feeling of our deficiency. If we know and are as- 
sured, in our most serious and reflective moments, 
that all things in God's hand, do work together for 
good to them that love Him, but if we call to mind 
this thought too rarely, and too slightly, let us im- 
prove this habit of mind; let us accustom ourselves 
to contemplate more intently, to realize more com- 
pletely, a truth so comfortable and so full of instruc- 
tion. If we find ourselves far removed from St. Paul 
in the temper of noble confidence and devout triumph 
with which he dwells upon this thought; let us try 
to learn from him a better lesson ; let us endeavour 



234 



SERMON XV. 



to catch some portion of his spirit ; — to warm our- 
selves with his fire ; — to stir our hearts with the lofty 
strains of his eloquence ; — to catch from him some 
notes of that triumphal music which he pours forth, 
so that they may habitually sound in our ears and 
possess our minds ; — may accompany our converse, 
and breathe round our solitude ; — may calm us in 
joy, and soothe us in sorrow ; — may mingle with the 
earthly sounds that ring about our daily path, a con- 
stant anticipation of the songs of heaven. 

"We know that all things work together for good 
to them that love God." We know it — we ought to 
know it, all of us, old and young, — to know this of 
all things, both what in the eye of the world are bene- 
fits, and what are evils. Let us cast our thoughts 
for a moment on some of these differences of the 
kinds of things which work for good. 

All things work together for good ; I say, pros- 
perous as well as adverse things, to those that love 
God. In general, this reflection, that all things work 
together for good, is most likely to be summoned to 
our aid as a support and comfort in the hour of 
adversity. But yet it may often be well to call up in 
our minds such a thought as this, in order that our 
joy in gifts and blessings of Providence may be tem- 
pered and hallowed, by the recollection that they are 
God's gifts and God's blessings ; and that though they 
work together for good to them that love God, they 
cannot w r ork for good to any one else. This it is 
well to recollect, with regard to the most universal 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 



235 



and indisputable blessings. Health, youth, vigour of 
body and mind, cheerfulness, friends, early advantages 
in mortal culture, love of intellectual pleasures and 
occupations, — these are the gifts which a bounteous 
providence has showered upon the heads of many of 
you. We rejoice that this is so. We share in your 
joy, that God has thus given you these good things 
which gold cannot buy, which all the world cannot 
replace. We rejoice in these your possessions, be- 
cause we know that these, along with all other things, 
may work together for good. And we rejoice, too, in 
all the special benefits which are, as we trust, brought 
to you by your coming among us here. We rejoice 
that you have here the opportunity of gratifying the 
love of learning and of study ; the opportunity of 
making this endowment the road to honour and 
benefit : we rejoice that you are here brought into a 
companionship, in which your love of all that is beau- 
tiful in thought and language is likely to be exalted 
by your intercourse and sympathy. We rejoice that 
you have here, opened to you, a wider sphere of com- 
panionship, a fuller freedom of action than you have 
perhaps yet enjoyed. We rejoice if you should have, 
while you are here, a few years which, in all after- 
time, you may look upon as the golden hinge of youth 
and manhood. We rejoice at these things, because 
we know that all these things may work together for 
good ; and that they do work together for good for 
them that love God. We trust that you are so 
enjoying these blessings, that for you they do work 



236 



SERMON XV. 



together for good. We trust that you receive and 
use all these boons with gratitude and reverence, 
acknowledging the Giver as your Master, and loving 
him as your Benefactor. We trust that you receive 
all these gifts with a feeling of responsibility ; know- 
ing that these and all things are given to you to be 
used for good purposes; — not as if they might be 
employed in a spirit of mere self-will and self-grati- 
fication, without any regard to any consequence, ex- 
cept immediate pleasure ; — but all as also instruments 
of duty or of preparation for duty : — all under the 
control and guidance of a love of God and a reso- 
lution to conduct yourself by his will. So received, 
so viewed, so used, all the opportunities and privi- 
leges, all the pursuits and enjoyments of youth, do 
indeed work together for good. The sunshine of the 
morning may cheer and invigorate you to bear the 
burthen and heat of the day ; and the Divine favour 
which thus beams upon you in obvious forms may, 
if you rightly seek it and duly prize it, be continued 
to you, with whatever change of external aspect, to 
the end of your lives. 

The Divine favour which now beams upon you 
in sunshine, may be continued to you in after years, 
however the aspect of things may change. For a 
change may come. It is not often that the brightness 
of the dawn continues through the day. The sky 
may blacken. The storm may gather. The tempest 
may descend. The brightness in which you exulted 
may be blotted out, and dark and dreary shadows 



ALL THINGS WORK FOK GOOD. 



237 



may fall upon the pathway of your life. To all of 
us the time must come when the strength and glory 
and joy of youth depart. On many of us may fall 
pains and losses, sorrows and calamities. We may 
be beset and oppressed, and almost overwhelmed with 
what are commonly esteemed evils ; and then it will 
be well for us if we are able to know and to feel that 
all things work together for good to them that love 
God, and that we are of the number of those who 
are benefitted by this working. When our bodily 
powers decay, when our youthful strength and cheer 
fail us, when we feel the touches of mortality in our 
members, when age lays his finger upon one part or 
another of our frame ; it is well to recollect that this 
is God's doing : — that these are among the things 
which by his operation work together for good ; — 
that we can labour in his service as earnestly and 
truly with our diminished powers, as in the season 
of our unbroken vigour ; — that as our day is, so shall 
our strength be ; — that ail failing of the body is a 
warning to us that the body is but an instrument 
lent to us to do God service, and fitted to last for 
a time only ; — that when this body is worn out, God 
can provide us a more glorious body; — that he has 
promised to do this, if we labour patiently and put 
our trust in him ; and that thus, all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God. With this 
conviction in our minds and this trust in our hearts, 
the changes which revolving years bring upon our 
bodily frame have in them nothing that is fearful. 



238 



SERMON XV. 



Looking at the whole man as a subject of God's dis- 
pensations, the change is not decay, but progress ; — 
it is not ruin, but preparation for a rebuilding; — 
not punishment, but teaching ; — not anger, but love — 
the love of God to them that love him, working for 
good through all seeming of evil. 

And this perhaps it is not so difficult to believe. 
That God may give and take away bodily powers and 
external means, and still that all may be for the best, 
is what we may, in our better moments, readily bring 
ourselves to think. Health and sickness, wealth and 
poverty, strength and weakness, are in the hands of 
God; and we can conceive that he may give either 
the brighter or the darker portion, and still that 
each may be given in love, and may work for good. 
But there are other cases in which it may be more 
difficult for us to bring ourselves to think that the 
things which come before us work together for good. 
When, for instance, we see those very things which 
we had looked upon as the instruments of God for 
good, destroyed or rendered ineffective ; — when what 
we had supposed to be the channel of God's favour 
is obstructed or filled with waters of bitterness; — 
when that which we had supposed to be the temple 
where he was pleased to dwell is destroyed and its 
stones scattered abroad ; — when that which we had 
imagined to be the luminary from which his light 
was to proceed is removed or extinguished ; — how 
hard is it then, even for those who most entirely trust 
in God, to believe that all things work together for 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 



239 



good ! How hard must it have been for a Jew who 
had cherished the darling belief that Jerusalem was 
the favoured place of God's dealings with his chosen, 
the destined spot for the fulfilment of those dispen- 
sations which had been going on for ages ; — how hard 
must it have been for such a one to believe that 
all things worked together for good, when all things 
worked together for the ruin of that beloved city, 
and the banishment of its people ; when the eagles 
were gathered together, and the hammer of war smote 
the walls ; and the slaughter of the battle-field was 
without, and fiercer rage, discord and murder, famine 
and unutterable horrors within ; — how difficult must 
it have been then to believe that all things were 
working together for good; — that this was a scene 
fitted to its place in the great drama of Providence ; — 
that these terrors, so much resembling those of the 
last day of the world, that the descriptions of the two 
are hardly distinguishable, had it really for their 
office better to prepare the world, by that visitation 
of a single city, for the judgment which shall in the 
end come upon the whole earth. Yet we can now 
well believe that all things, even in this dread tragedy, 
worked together for good to tfiem that loved God. 
We know that there were those who at the time 
looked to the event in that temper and in that trust, 
and who found in that trust their comfort and pre- 
servation. And again; when the Christain of later 
times saw the candlestick of the Gospel taken away 
from those places where it had at first so brightly 



240 



SERMON XV. 



shone ; — Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamos and Thya- 
tira, Sardis and Philadelphia; — when he saw their 
divine lamps quenched and their fountains of living 
waters dried up ; — it must have been indeed for the 
moment hard for him to believe that all things work 
together for good to them that love God: — most 
grievous to see darkness where there had been a great 
light, and the reign of the wilderness restored where 
the rose had once blossomed and filled the land with 
its perfume. It must have been sad to see this appa- 
rent victory of the powers of evil, and the believer 
would then perhaps turn for support and solace to 
such passages of God's word as that which we have 
now before us; and say with St. Paul, "We know that 
all things work together for good to them that love 
God." We know that this is so, though we cannot 
as yet see how it is so. We know that such instru- 
ments as we have just spoken of are cast away, be- 
cause they are not fit and worthy to execute God's 
purposes. We know that it was best, for the fur- 
therance of God's designs, that the scene of the 
greatest earthly triumphs of the Gospel should be 
transferred from Asia to Europe; — that the blessed 
flood of Christian teaching should roll mainly to- 
wards the nations which were taking possession of 
the world, and, as it were, making its cities and king- 
doms anew. Such was God's good providence ; and 
seeing that it was his, we do not doubt that it was 
for good to them that love God. We can readily 
believe that it was for good to us, so far as we love 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 



241 



God ; for it is through this dispensation of God's 
mercy that we have been called out of darkness into 
light, out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom 
of God. It is not for us to know the times and 
seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 
Such was the answer which our Saviour, after his 
resurrection (Acts i. 7) made to the inquiry respecting 
the time at which he would restore the kingdom. 
Such is the answer which we must suppose made 
to us, when our too curious thoughts endeavour to 
trace the workings of God's providence, and when, 
because we cannot do this to our satisfaction, we 
doubt whether all things work together for good; — 
or at least, feel no comfort in the assent which we 
give to that sacred truth. It is not for us to know 
the times and the seasons; but our duty, our path, 
is not the less plain before us on that account. What 
is that to theef follow thou me: is again an answer 
which on such occasions, when such questionings 
arise, we may suppose addressed to ourselves; or 
happier still should we be, if we might accept, as 
that in which we have some share, the rest of that 
other reply : " It is not for you to know the times 
and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own 
power. But ye shall receive power after that the 
Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be wit- 
nesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judcea, 
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost ends of the 
earth." 

w. c. s. R 



242 



SERMON XV. 



Happy for us if we might in any way have a share 
in this answer ! — if the Holy Spirit might come upon 
us so as to give us that heart which was in the Apos- 
tles, and which made them receive this reply with joy, 
and go onwards on the faith of it, nothing doubting ! 
— if we might have such a heart as St. Paul had, when, 
after speaking of the groaning and travailing of the 
whole creation, and of our own distress, through 
which we ourselves groan within ourselves ; he can 
still cry out, What shall separate us from, the love 
of Christ f and declare that we are more than con- 
querors over all evils, through Him that loved us. 
Happy if, like Him, we can joyfully acquiesce in the 
condition in which we now see as through a glass, 
darkly (1 Cor. xiii.), and look forwards to the time 
when we shall see face to face; — when we shall no 
longer know in part, and prophesy in part, but know 
even as we are known. 

And why should we not turn our thoughts to this, 
as one of the privileges of those who are admitted 
into his everlasting presence ; — who stand at his right 
hand and share the fulness of his joy? "Beloved, it 
doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know 
that when He shall appear, we" — may He grant us 
that it may be so ! — " shall be like Him, for we shall 
see Him as he is." We shall see Him as he is, wise, 
and good, and gracious in all things; and shall no 
longer be distressed and oppressed by the dark and 
perplexed parts of his providence ; — by Divine can- 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 243 

dlesticks removed, and holy cities utterly destroyed, 
and the disappearance of Him who we trusted should 
have redeemed Israel. We shall see the Sacred His- 
tory of the world as He sees it. We shall be admitted 
to the secret of the work which God works from the 
beginning to the end. We shall see the seasons of 
grace and of chastisement, of spiritual light and dark- 
ness, warmth and cold, riches and poverty, no longer 
as if determined by the casual play of partial clouds 
and varying blasts, but regulated by the steady motion 
of the sun which gives its light to the heavenly Je- 
rusalem ; — as parts of a plan extending through all 
ages of the earth's history, all nations of the earth's 
inhabitants, by which the heavenly Jerusalem is let 
down upon earth ; — by which those who are God's 
true servants become denizens of that celestial city. 
And thus we shall indeed know that all things work 
together for good to them that love God. 

But before we dismiss this thought, we must not 
omit to remind ourselves how important it is to at- 
tend to the condition on which this working together 
of all things for good depends ; and to strive and to 
pray that we may be included in the number of those 
to whom that condition applies. All things work for 
good to them that love God, but only to them. Alas ! 
of what avail would it be to us to know that all 
things work for good to them, if we know ourselves 
not to be of them! Of what avail our knowledge, 
even if we could trace the mysteries of God's pro- 

R2 



244 



SERMON XV. 



vidence, and see how that which is evil to ordinary 
eyes is really good, if along with our knowledge we 
had not that love which should make it good to us ! 
But indeed it is in the love, that the knowledge has 
its spring. It is by the internal fire of the love of 
God that our being is illuminated, and our eyes made 
clear to discern the good in the evil. Without the 
love of God, there is for us no good. Without the 
love of God, all things must work for evil. All things 
work for evil to us, when we ourselves work for evil. 
All things work for evil to us, when we are not in 
communication with God, deriving our good from 
Him. All things work for evil to us, when anything 
separates us from the love of Christ. We may be 
more than conquerors, but it must be through Him 
that loved us, and whom we must therefore love. If 
this he so, we are more than conquerors; but if 
this be not so, we are conquered, defeated, enslaved, 
destroyed. May this indeed be so ! may we be filled 
with the love of God and of his Christ ! May we feel 
how much depends upon our union with God through 
Christ, and that this dependence is to us effective for 
good ! If we love God, we shall keep his command- 
ments. If we love God, we shall seek his salvation. 
If we love God, we shall embrace the offers which 
He has made, showing that He first loved us. If we 
love God, we shall seek the guidance and support of 
his Spirit; — the consciousness of his presence, the 
hope of his favour, the knowledge of his will. If 



ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 



245 



we thus love God, the whole world is our minister 
and helper. All things are then ours. All things then 
work for good. God's promises and teaching, our 
external circumstances and opportunities, family and 
friends, — all are means of grace ; all feed and sup- 
port hopes of glory. As the same Apostle with whose 
animating words we have been endeavouring to ele- 
vate our own hearts says in another place, (1 Cor. 
iii. 21,) "All things are yours, whether Paul, or 
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or 
things present, or things to come, all are yours ; and 
ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's ! 

May this indeed be so for us ! may we be Christ's, 
and thus may all things be ours, and work to us for 
good ! And may every occasion of prayer, and every 
administration of God's ordinances, make us more 
truly Christ's, and be among the things which are 
ours, because we are His ! 

This may God grant ! 



SERMON XVI 



(1846. Michaelmas Term.) 

John XVII. 15. 

/ pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, 
but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 

rpHESE words occur in the last of those five most 
— solemn and affecting chapters of the Gospel of 
the Beloved Disciple, in which he has given to us 
the record of that inexpressibly tender and touching 
discourse of his Master and ours, with which he 
addressed his Disciples on the last evening when they 
were gathered together; — on the evening preceding 
that day of blackness when he laid down his life for 
his flock. " Before the feast of the passover," St. John 
tells us, in the 13th chapter, "when Jesus knew that 
his hour was come, that he should depart out of the 
world unto the Father, having loved his own which 
were in the world, he loved them unto the end." 
In words which must have moved them to the very 
bottom of their souls, he gave them his parting in- 
junctions, warnings and encouragements. He taught 
them humility by most significant actions ; he received 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 



247 



with benignity their professions of unshaken adherence 
to him, yet warned them that, notwithstanding these, 
they would all fall away from him for a time ; to him 
among them who was most energetic in the expression 
of his zealous love, he predicted a more especial and 
imminent fall; he told them that the world would 
hate them ; that they should be put out of the syna- 
gogues, and that the time would come when whosoever 
killed them would think that he did God service ; but 
he promised them the coming of the Comforter, whom 
he would send when He was departed, and who should 
convince the world concerning sin, concerning right- 
eousness, and concerning judgment. And when he 
had at last, in some measure, brought them to under- 
stand how that he, having come from the Father and 
come into the world, was now T to leave the world and 
to go to the Father, he proceeded, in their presence, 
to pray to the Father on their behalf. " And now, 
Father," he said, " 1 am no more in the world, but 
these are in the world, while I come to thee." And yet, 
though their lot in the world, and the world's feelings 
towards them, were to be such as he thus pointed 
out, he still adds the prayer which forms our text: 
" I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the 
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the 
evil." He did not desire that they should be taken out 
of the way of opposition and persecution, and pain and 
death. He did not pray that they should be shielded 
from these things, which in the language of the world 
are evils, and among the greatest of evils ; but that, 



248 



SERMON XVI. 



while they remained in the midst of these supposed 
evils, they should be saved from something which 
he termed more peculiarly and eminently the evil. 
Now there must have been some strong reason why 
their Divine Master thus, as it were, left them to bear 
the hate and scorn and anger of the world ; and even 
in the deepest and most loving outpouring of his 
affection for them, did not pray that they might 
escape such inflictions. He called to their minds that 
he had, while he was with them in the world, kept 
them in the name of the Father ; " these that Thou 
gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but 
the son of perdition ; " and he was still to keep them 
by the sending of the Comforter. But this keeping 
was not a taking of them out of the world, though 
they were not of the world ; nor a protection of 
them from the outward evils which the world could 
visit them with, though this was in his power, for 
all that the Father had was his. He bade them be 
of good cheer, for he had overcome the world, but 
he did not promise to them, nor ask for them, the 
world's friendship, or forbearance, or neutrality, as 
the fruits and trophies of his victory. He had over- 
come the world, yet he left them to fight on in the 
same warfare. He knew that the world would hate 
them, yet he committed to its hate those whom he 
best loved. He prayed not that they should be taken 
out of the world, though he knew that in the world 
they should have tribulation. This surely is a matter 
well worthy of our consideration. We may well wish 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 249 

to learn why it was that the loving Master so shaped 
his last prayer for his afflicted Disciples. And we 
have the strongest ground for supposing that the 
reason of this prayer thus limited, whatever it was, 
did not apply to the Disciples only who were then 
gathered round their Lord. We are authorized to be- 
lieve that the love of Jesus Christ for all his followers, 
in all time, would call down upon them the same kind 
of blessings which he asked for those who heard him 
in the flesh. He does thus extend his prayer imme- 
diately afterwards (ver. 20), " Neither pray I for these 
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me 
through their word;" — and though this part of the 
prayer inTmediately goes on to express more parti- 
cularly what that blessing was which he asked for 
them ; namely, " that they all may be one ;'' yet this 
special mention of that which he did require for them 
does not at all remove the former declaration of what 
he did not ask : " I pray not that Thou shouldest take 
them out of the world." We may assume, then, that 
Christ, the Intercessor through whose powerful love 
all Christians receive all their blessings, does not, in 
his tender regard for them, desire that they should be 
taken out of the world, which persecuted him, and 
which he knows will persecute and resist them; and 
we are naturally led to ask, how this is ? What is the 
reason why Christ thus declares, for our instruction, 
that it is no part of his prayer to his Heavenly 
Father that he would take his true servants out of 
the world ? 



250 



SERMON XVI. 



To this, I think, we may reply, that Christ makes 
this declaration concerning his servants, because it is, 
in two general ways, good that they should be in the 
world. It is good for them, and it is good for the 
world. A few words may suffice to explain each of 
these points. 

In the first place, it is good for Christians them- 
selves that they should not be taken out of the 
world. They must be there to exercise their Chris- 
tian qualities ; their faith, their love, their obedience. 
It may perhaps be said, that these are internal dispo- 
sitions of the heart, which intercourse with the world 
cannot give, though it may impair them ; that the 
wealth and honours, the friendships and rivalries, the 
public and private businesses of the world, can be of 
little or no concern to a man whose heart is set on 
heaven ; that it is not what we do, but what we are, 
which determines our Christian condition ; and that 
God can see into our hearts without needing that we 
should clothe our inward affections in the garb of 
worldly occupations and outward acts. But this is 
not really the teaching either of Scripture or of 
reason. We know that, in fact, all human affections 
require outward circumstances and conditions, not 
only for their manifestation, but for their existence 
and developement. All human virtues are virtues, 
(so far as they can be so termed,) by means of the 
external relations which call them into play. It is 
only by our conduct with regard to wealth and 
honours and friends and rivals and family and neigh- 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 



251 



bours, that we can show, and even that we can know, 
that we are willing and able to obey God's commands, 
and to conform our hearts to his Will. The laws to 
which he requires our obedience, are laws which 
imply, at every step, those relations and interests and 
pursuits which make up the business of the world ; 
and the Christian is truly a Christian, not by shutting 
his eyes, and withholding his hand, and averting his 
heart, with respect to all the concerns of his house- 
hold and his neighbourhood and his country ; but by 
looking at and dealing with and feeling towards all 
these things in a Christian spirit. It is easy for men 
to imagine that they have in their heart all Christian 
feelings, when they have not been tried ; but if these 
dispositions will not bear the trial of external temp- 
tation and opposition and difficulty, they are imagi- 
nary only, and not real. It is easy to say that not 
what we do, but what we are, is really of consequence, 
but how shall it be known what we are, except by 
that which, according to our external means and 
opportunities, we do? We may persuade ourselves 
that we have Faith ; but our Faith is not genuine, 
except it work by Love; and Love is not Christian 
Love, except it can live and love and work on, through 
those clouds of indifference and hatred and jarring 
wishes and opposing interests, which fill the atmo- 
sphere of the world. These clouds are the atmosphere 
of the world, but they are also the atmosphere in 
which the Christian spirit is tried. The world breeds 
them ; — the Christian temper dispels them, or at 



252 



SERMON XVI. 



least parts them ; — makes its way through them like 
the sun, and turns them into attendant glories. It 
is not by withdrawing ourselves from the concerns 
of this life that we are to fit ourselves for another. 
We know that this course has been tried by many, in 
past ages, and even in our own ; but the course of 
experience does not teach us that God's blessing is 
upon it. The cloistered enthusiast, who has secluded 
himself from the struggles and temptations of the 
world, broods over the movements of his own thoughts 
till they involve him in struggles and temptations 
far more unwholesome and dangerous ; or perhaps he 
makes himself an external world on which to exercise 
his patience and fortitude, by surrounding himself 
with bodily pain and privation. But this is not the 
world in which God has placed him, or in which 
Christ has set him to walk. He prays that he may 
be taken out of the world ; but Christ did not so 
pray for him. Let us rather seek how we may go 
through the world in the spirit of Christ's prayer for 
us : — in the spirit of the prayer which he has taught 
us, that he would lead us into no temptation which may 
overcome us, and so would keep us from the evil. 

But perhaps it may be said, that in thus willingly 
involving ourselves in the struggles and temptations 
of the world, we shew too great a dependence on our 
own strength : — that this notion, of virtues which are 
to be brought out into view by exercising themselves 
upon the world's antagonist powers, is not in unison 
with Christian humility : — that it savours of presump- 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 



253 



tion and self-confidence to wish to engage in the con- 
flicts of the world, as if our Christian armour were of 
proof against all assailants : — that those who remain 
in the world in such a spirit, may, when it is too late, 
find that the foe is too strong for them : — that such 
pride may, and commonly will, have a fatal fall. And 
indeed, if we were to think of remaining in the 
world in this temper of self-reliance, we might justly 
be blamed as rash and unwise. We should be help- 
less, like David in his armour ; and we are then only 
likely to be victorious, when, like him, we put off this 
harness, and go forth in the name of the Lord God. 
But then, this too is a lesson which we are most likely 
to learn by remaining in the world, and which we 
might remain ignorant of, if in any way we could be 
kept apart from the world. We are liable to fall 
away in time of temptation, as the band of disciples, 
and even the zealous Peter did : but if the trial never 
come, we may be as confident in our love and zeal as 
they were before it came. But from the conflicts 
which an intercourse with the world brings, we shall 
soon, if we really seek to overcome the world, learn 
this lesson ; that the victory is not to be won by our 
own strength ; and that it is only by a profound reli- 
ance on the help from on high, and by constant and 
humble petitions for the grace of God, that we can 
avoid shameful and fatal defeat. We know that 
Christ prayed for us, that, though not taken out of 
the world, we may be saved from the evil ; and our 
trust that this may be so, and our hopes of it, must 



254 



SERMON XVI. 



ever be kept alive and led to their consummation by 
our prayers to Him : — by our earnest petition that he 
will continue that loving care of us, his disciples, 
which he expressed to his first disciples on that 
memorable night ; and that he will send to us that 
blessed Comforter whom he then promised. If we are 
in the world with our thoughts and hopes and reli- 
ance fixed on Him who overcame the world, we may 
indeed share in the benefit of his prayer for us, 
that we may be kept from the evil. If we are in the 
world in this spirit, we may still feel the comfort of 
his words, and though in the world we have tribu- 
lation, we may be of good cheer. If we are in the 
world in this spirit, we may, all the more on that 
account, abide in Christ as branches of the true vine, 
and bear such fruit as becomes his disciples. 

And this fruit will not be for our own benefit 
only: but the world also will be benefited by those 
who are Christ's disciples, remaining in it and labour- 
ing in it. This was the second general remark which 
we had to make : — that a reason, as we must suppose, 
why Christ declared that he did not pray that his 
disciples might be taken out of the world was, that 
it is good for the world that they should remain in it. 
And indeed, so far is this good for the world, that if 
the power of Christ, working through the actions and 
ministrations of his servants, were taken out of the 
world, the whole frame of the world would be aban- 
doned to evil; — to sin and corruption, misery and 
despair. It is the Spirit of God, warring against the 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 255 

evil of the world, through Christ come in the flesh, 
and through his true servants actuated by his Spirit, 
which makes the world tolerable in God's eyes, — 
which gives meaning to its existence and continuance. 
To carry on that warfare with the spirit of the world 
which Christ himself carried on while he was on 
earth, is the great business of the Christian, — is the 
great blessing of the world. When Christ returned 
to the Father from whom He came, He left his Dis- 
ciples behind Him to preach his faith to the world, 
and He prayed for them and for all who should be- 
lieve through their word. And in every generation 
we may believe that He continues to intercede for 
them in like manner ; — that He still prays for them 
and for all who shall believe through their word. 
And this is the business of Christians, at all times 
and in all situations ; — so to speak and so to act, that 
through their words and actions others may be- 
lieve ; — so to carry into effect the petitions of Christ's 
prayer for them, that others may seek to share in the 
blessings which they enjoy ; — so to make known the 
benefits of their Christian brotherhood, that others 
may seek to be included in the same bands of love. 
Nor is this their task one without hope and progress. 
It is true that in every age, the world has opposed, 
and hated, and persecuted, the true servants of Christ. 
It is true, that as it would not hear Christ's words, 
so neither will it hear the words of his ministers. It 
is true, that sin and evil, wrath and strife, greediness 
and coldness, sensuality and impurity, have resisted 



256 



SERMON XVI. 



the efforts of Christian men to subdue and remove 
them. It is true, that the knowledge and the love of 
Christ which alone can conquer these evils, make 
their way among men slowly and scantily. Yet still, 
something has been done. All has not been lost. 
The Lord has left us a small remnant, so that we have 
not been like unto Sodom and Gomorrah. Or rather, 
the boundary of evil has receded. The banner of 
Christ has advanced. The kingdoms of the earth 
have in a great degree acknowledged his name : in 
some measure — small, alas ! yet still, such as may 
save us from despair of God's blessing — they have 
received his Spirit. And thus, the world has been so 
far benefited by the remaining in it of Christ's dis- 
ciples, that that circumstance alone has enabled us 
to look upon it as God's world; — that circumstance 
alone has enabled us to understand that Christ has 
overcome the world; — that circumstance alone can 
elevate and direct our thoughts to a final and more 
perfect stage of this victory, when all things shall be 
put under his feet. 

With these views we may then, I think, under- 
stand why it was that Christ thus prayed for his 
Disciples, not that God would take them out of the 
world, but that he would keep them from the evil. 
But these views point at once to the practical con- 
clusions which we are' to draw from this text. For if 
we, as Christ's disciples, are to remain in the world 
for the exercise and discipline of our Christian dis- 
positions, and above all, for the practice of prayer to 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 



257 



God and dependence upon him ; we must needs 
fashion our intercourse with the world very differently 
from those who seek in it their supreme enjoyments 
and their final aims. To us, it is not an end, but 
a means ; — not a home, but a school ; — not a resting- 
couch, but a battle-field ; — not a treasure-house, but 
a ship in which we make a perilous but necessary 
voyage. It is for us a scene of labour and trial, and 
temptation ; for if we engage in such tasks as the 
common course of life brings before us, we shall 
be sure to have many temptations ; — so many, that 
knowing they will superabound, and knowing our 
own weakness, we may still seek to be spared all 
that are not absolutely needful for us ; and thus, may 
utter, in both senses, the prayer which Christ has 
taught us ; — that our Heavenly Father will deliver 
us in temptation, when it seems good to him to send 
it, and will deliver us from temptation, so far as is 
consistent with our finding in the world a school- 
master to bring us to Christ : — that he will, in both 
ways, fulfil Christ's prayer for us, and ours for our- 
selves, that we may be delivered from the evil ; and 
thus may share in that other portion of this divine 
prayer of our Lord and Master (ver. 24) : " Father, I 
will that they also whom thou hast given me be with 
me where I am ; that they may behold my glory 
which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me 
before the foundation of the world." 

But we learn yet another lesson from what has 
been said. If Christians are in the world for the 
w. c. s. S 



258 



SERMON XVI. 



benefit of the world, as well as for their own discipline 
and trial ; — if it is they who are to carry on the con- 
tinual conflict with sin and evil which is God's great 
purpose in the conduct of the world ; — if they are 
ever and in all ages, up to our own days, the light of 
the world, and the salt of the earth, and the leaven 
which is to work through the mass till the whole be 
leavened; — let us, humbly and gratefully acknow- 
ledging ourselves Christians, and trusting that we 
shall finally behold the glory of Christ, ever recollect 
that, in order that we may dare to hold this hope, 
we must share His Spirit and help in His work. We 
may well call to mind this ; — for in so doing we are 
making no new rules for ourselves ; we are not bind- 
ing ourselves by any new obligation, — not by one new 
even in its form. We are but repeating our earliest 
vow, our most familiar terms of duty, that we will 
resist the world, the flesh, and the devil, and be 
Christ's faithful soldiers and servants to our lives' 
end. And well it is for us that these expressions 
of our rule of life are so familiar to us. But while 
they dwell upon our minds with the gravity of bygone 
ages, with the domestic sound of earliest memory, — 
let them also now strike upon our hearts with the 
force of novelty. Let us think that we are now for 
the first time enlisted in a band which is gathered in 
all lands, under the banner of Christ, and of which 
the uniting vow, the military oath is, that they will 
always and everywhere forward God's purposes upon 
earth, as declared in Christ Jesus whom he sent upon 



THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 259 

the earth. Let us remember that being Christians, 
we aspire to be of that number for whom Christ 
prays (ver. 21): "That they all may be one; — as 
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also 
may be one in us : and that the world may believe 
that thou hast sent me." Let us seek to be one with 
those who are one with the Father and with Christ, 
and let our unity be shown in leading the world to 
believe that God has sent Christ upon earth to draw 
all men to him; to subdue the evil imaginations of 
their hearts, to put down the works of darkness, and to 
carry light and life into the habitations of mankind. 
If we really are among Christ's faithful soldiers and 
servants, we shall have no difficulty in finding the scene 
of our warfare— the field of our service. The evil which 
Christ's soldier has to combat, the good works which 
his servant has to do, offer themselves on every side. 
Want and woe, darkness and ignorance, sin and foul- 
ness, anger and strife, near and afar off, at home and 
abroad, in secret dens and in the broad light of the 
sun, — these are enemies which are never driven from 
the field, though over these, the true soldier of Christ, 
fighting under the eye of the great Captain of his 
salvation, is ever achieving advantages ; — ever suc- 
cessful, though never, it may be, triumphant : — ever 
improving in the use of his arms, though still re- 
ferring all his successes to the guidance and help 
of his Leader. And while he thus stands daily in 
the presence of the foe, and sees that the line which 
he defends is the boundary between God's truth and 

S2 . 



260 



SERMON XVI. 



light and love, and the blackness of despair and the 
mire of iniquity, and the bloody torrents of wrath 
which are the elements of which a godless and un- 
redeemed world consists, he perceives the deep-seated 
love which breathes in that prayer of Christ : I pray 
not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but 
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 



SERMON XVII. 



(1847. Lent Term.) 

Psalm CXLIV. 15. 

Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is 
that people whose God is the Lord. 

rFHE Psalms of David have, at all periods, from his 
time to the present hour, been a treasure-house 
of instruction and comfort to all the faithful servants 
of God. They have been as a river of consolation 
running through all ages, from which they who 
trusted in the revealed will and purposes of God have 
drawn habitual draughts of hope and knowledge. 
Those who belonged to God's people, when as yet He 
had, in an especial manner, one people upon earth, 
found there, in their deepest adversities, support in 
the promises, which were given them, of future de- 
liverance and blessing. And when the Saviour who 
was then promised was come upon earth, and his own 
nation received Him not, those whom He sent to 
teach the world found in the Psalms the evidences 
by which they could prove to men that He was in- 
deed He that should come. And when the earthly 



262 



SERMON XVII. 



throne of David was overturned, and the Temple 
destroyed, and the children of Israel scattered abroad, 
so that they were no more a nation among the people 
of the earth, still those who had received the Son of 
David as their spiritual Head and Sovereign, found 
that the language of the Psalms had not ceased to be 
applicable to their condition and their feelings. They 
knew that not only was it true, as is said in the 10th 
verse of the Psalm from which my text is taken, 
that it is God that giveth salvation to kings, and de- 
livereth David his servant from the hurtful sword : — 
but also that it is He that giveth salvation to every 
man that is saved, and delivereth the humblest of his 
servants from all that may hurt their souls. And 
bearing in mind their constant need of such deliver- 
ance, and their dependence upon the source from 
which it must come to them, they found a plain and 
most significant application, in their case, of the ex- 
pressions of supplication and humiliation, of faith and 
trust, of hope and thanksgiving, which David had 
used, both in reference to the condition and feelings 
of the Jewish nation, and to the circumstances of 
his own individual life and thoughts. The disciples 
of Christ were then in an especial manner, God's 
people ; — they were a peculiar people whom He had 
purified to himself. Christ was their Head, and they 
were his subjects: and here was a kingdom, which 
was majestic and large enough to supply a responsive 
meaning to all the glowing phrases of the Psalmist. 
They too could ask, " Why do the heathen rage, and 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



263 



the people imagine a vain thing?" They could say, 
44 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers 
take counsel together against the Lord and against 
his Anointed :" they could recollect with joy the pro- 
mise, 44 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; 
the Lord shall have them in derision :" and the de- 
claration, 44 Yet have I set my King on my holy hill 
of Zion." They could exclaim with reverent hearts, 
44 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the 
sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre :" and could 
in like manner catch something in harmony with 
their own feelings from every note of the harp of 
David. Not that they were to be a people visibly 
separated from the other peoples that occupy the 
surface of the earth. Their great King had said, 
44 My Kingdom is not of this world." His Disciples 
had bid them pay tribute to earthly rulers ; and not 
only to obey, but to reverence the magistrates ap- 
pointed by men for the preservation of peace and 
justice. They were thus to live among men, not like 
the children of the old Covenant, a nation among 
nations, but as the people of God in each nation, 
zealous of good works, employed in drawing those 
among whom they dwelt to the obedience and love 
of Him, and to a knowledge of his salvation. When 
that former course of God's providence came to an 
end, reaching its completion and purpose in the esta- 
blishment of Christ's spiritual kingdom, and when the 
husbandmen of God's especial vineyard had said of 
his Son whom he sent to them, 44 Come, let us slay 



264 



SERMON XVII. 



him, and the inheritance shall be ours ;" — there was 
no longer any one among the kingdoms of the earth 
that could be looked upon as acknowledging God for 
its governor. There was, speaking in a mere secular 
sense, no people to which belonged the blessing 
spoken of in the text: Happy are the people that 
have the Lord for their God. 

But yet the Christian worshipper could be at no 
loss to apply to his own condition even such texts as 
that which we have now before us. His own con- 
gregation, his own family, he himself in his individual 
capacity, might serve as matter for the reflection how 
happy they are that have the Lord for their God. 
The grounds on which those who are in such a case 
are declared to be happy, would be to him most 
apparent ; and apparent more and more strongly, in 
proportion as he had the Lord for his God, and had 
partaken of the salvation and deliverance which He 
bestows. The Christian can, from the bottom of his 
heart say, Blessed are they who have the Lord for 
their God, for the Lord is his help and strength, the 
Lord is become his salvation. Without his relation 
to his Almighty Father and the Son whom he hath 
sent, his life would be a lot of weakness and blind- 
ness, desolation and misery. It is because the Lord 
is his God, that he has been rescued from the dark- 
ness and foulness of heathenism ; — that he has been 
aided in overcoming the downward impulses of a 
corrupt nature ; that he has been placed in a path 
in which man may go on from strength to strength, 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



265 



from light to light, from holiness to holiness; it is 
because the Lord is his God, that he has power given 
him to become one of the sons of God ; — heir of God, 
and joint-heir with Christ; — supported and animated 
through all earthly trials by the hope of rising from 
death as Christ has risen, and living with Him for 
ever. And thus he can gladly and earnestly say, 
with reference to himself, Happy is he who has the 
Lord for his God. 

But this is not the only application, nor perhaps 
the principal one, which the Christian worshipper 
makes of the words of the text, and of similar pas- 
sages of scripture. Although the heathen nations of 
the earth do not acknowledge the true Lord of heaven 
and earth for their God, yet ever since Christ came 
upon the earth, there have been in almost every 
nation, disciples of His, worshipping God in spirit 
and in truth through him ; and in that favoured 
region of the earth in which we are placed, those 
who thus first called upon the name of the Lord, 
rapidly increased in number, and drew over to the 
faith and fear of the Lord most of those among whom 
they dwelt. And whenever, in the communities of 
the earth, the devout servants of God find them- 
selves enabled in a great degree to turn their neigh- 
bours and fellow- citizens from the evil of their ways, 
— to draw them to believe in and worship God, 
and to seek his favour in the ways appointed by 
Him, — they are prompted to labour in this good 
worj*, not only by hope of bringing individuals into 



266 



SERMON XVII. 



the way of salvation, but also by the belief that in 
this manner the favour of the Lord of Heaven and 
Earth will be directed towards the community as a 
body : — that there will be a blessing upon their city, 
their country, their people : — that they will come to 
have their share in the benediction of our text ; 
Happy is that people whose God is the Lord. And 
this is, my brethren, a motive for our labouring more 
and more earnestly to walk the path of Christian pro- 
gress, and to draw our friends and neighbours along 
with us, that we may thus hope to receive, not only 
individual but social blessings. Men are bound to- 
gether by social ties, and by a community of social 
interests, which is not broken by the widest diversi- 
ties of opinion and affection in the most momentous 
matters. Living together according to the necessary 
conditions of civil life, they bring down upon each 
other curses or blessings. You may, — you must — have 
a share in one of these two influences. You may — by 
your wickedness, your impiety, your sensuality; by 
your hard-heartedness, your selfishness, your avarice ; 
by your levity and indifference to all better things ; — 
by these and in a thousand other ways, through your 
want of true godliness, you may add to that load of 
evil which weighs down the destiny of nations, and 
marks them out for the curse of God. On the other 
hand, there is none of us who may not hope, in some 
way or other, to contribute to the Christian character 
of the nation of which he is a part : — by diffusing the 
knowledge of God's will and God's goodness among 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



267 



his neighbours; by promoting peace among the 
contentious, and urging the cause of pity upon the 
indifferent and callous : — by rebuking impurity and 
dissoluteness, if occasion serve, by Christian con- 
demnation, but at any rate, by a total separation of 
yourselves from the guilty; — by treating all things 
which we have to do in common with others as 
matters in which the spirit of Christian progress is 
to be manifested; — by keeping men in mind that, in 
their public as well as in their private acts, in their 
social, as well as in their individual capacity, they 
have a duty, and that their duty is mercy and justice, 
truth and holiness. There is none of us, I say, who 
may not hope, in these and the like ways, to promote 
the fear of God in his own nation, and thus to help 
to bring upon it the benediction of the text, Happy 
are the people that ham the Lord for their God. 

And it was by the efforts and exhortations of men 
labouring in such a spirit, with such ends, that the 
kingdoms of this world after Christ came upon the 
earth, were in succession brought to recognize the 
Lord for their God, and his Christ as the promised 
Saviour of all men. And however scanty might be 
the obedience which they gave to Him whom they 
thus acknowledged as their Sovereign, however im- 
perfect the manner in which they availed themselves 
of his salvation, still their recognition of God and of 
Christ was no mere form of words ; it did not begin 
and end with their assuming the name of Christians ; 
they did not do this, still carrying on the business of 



268 



SERMON XVII. 



the nation, and employing its wealth, and conducting 
its deliberations, and teaching its children, and looking 
towards its wise and learned men, as they would have 
done if the rulers of the nation were still heathens 
who had never heard of Christ, or had heard without 
believing. The nations who called themselves by the 
name of Christ, moulded their laws, and their insti- 
tutions, and their habits, and their language, so as 
to make their Christian character an element which 
pervaded their being. The very physiognomy of the 
land and the whole aspect of society was stamped 
with this character. In the great city, the mighty 
Cathedral lifted itself up into the sky ; out of every 
village-grove shot up the village-spire or tower : the 
Christian minister was stationed in every place ready 
to teach old and young the things which concerned 
their salvation, and to inculcate upon them the duties 
of the Christian's life. Houses appointed for offices 
of mercy — Cloisters dedicated to religious study — 
Schools and Colleges, Halls and Hospitals — rose 
throughout the length and breadth of every Christian 
land; and whatever errours or defects there might 
be in their design or in their acts, still shewed that 
men, being Christians in their hearts, were desirous 
of forwarding in the external world of social life the 
purposes which they believed to be Christian ; — that 
having the Lord for their God, they were desirous 
by all modes of public and collective action, to write 
his name upon their foreheads ;— that they sought to 
mark themselves as Christians by the mode in which 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



269 



they employed their worldly goods, and made their 
estimate of what was really great and honourable, 
lovely and beautiful. And when the kingdoms of 
the modern world did thus take the Lord for their 
God, can we doubt that they were happy in so doing ? 
Do we not owe, to their having done this, a large 
portion, to say the least, of all that is most kindly, 
and pure, and sweet, in the influences of the past 
upon the present ; — all that is most wise and great 
in our present intellectual life ; — all that is most free 
and hopeful in the order of society: to say nothing 
of this, — that if those nations had not been led to 
embrace the Christian faith in that public and solemn 
manner, it cannot be supposed, so far as human esti- 
mation of probability can go, that the belief in Christ 
would now have been professed almost universally 
in all the most civilized nations of the earth, and 
that there would have been, constantly proceeding- 
out of those nations, into others which lie on every 
side of them in every region of the globe, earnest 
and devout men, desirous of preaching to the heathen 
the Gospel of peace, and of leading them to acknow- 
ledge the Lord for their God, in the same way by 
which the nations of our quarter of the globe, in 
their season, were led to that happy step in their 
national career. Surely then, you will not hesitate 
to believe that the nation in which we live, and other 
nations in like manner, was happy when it took 
the Lord for its God ; — when it established the true 
religion within itself; established it because it was 



270 



SERMON XVII. 



true ; and gave public and emphatic declarations that 
it believed this truth, in the institutions of the nation 
provided for education, — for government, — for all the 
most solemn occasions of life, — for all the highest 
purposes of our social being. If the nation had not 
thus done, it must needs have remained in a rude 
and dark and fettered condition, incapable of lifting 
itself up to that level of freedom, and light, and 
dignity, to which it has been elevated by God's gra- 
cious Providence in the later times of its existence. 

But though in the course of ages, all the most 
flourishing kingdoms of this world became, in name, 
and in the purpose of many of their institutions, the 
kingdoms of God and of his Christ, and thereby 
received some of the blessings which are promised 
to God's people ; this course of things did not run on 
evenly and directly, nor without attempts to establish 
in another manner a nominal kingdom of God upon 
earth. The Roman empire, embracing all nations 
within its boundary, and reaching to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, had accustomed men's thoughts to 
a sovereignty of which the kingdoms and states into 
which the world had formerly been divided, were but 
members. Forgetting Christ's own declaration, they 
attempted to make his kingdom a kingdom of this 
world, having all the nations into which the world is 
divided, for its subordinate provinces. They gave to 
Christ's kingdom another head besides himself; and 
because things spiritual are in their nature greater 
and higher than things temporal, they claimed for 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



271 



the authority which thus represented Christ, a sway 
above all earthly sovereignties. They used indeed 
the language of the psalmist in our text, Happy is 
the people that have the Lord for their God; — but 
they added to this, conditions which God had never 
made, that a people could not enjoy this happiness 
without having an earthly power for their eccle- 
siastical Lord; — that they could not be of God's 
Church without acknowledging a visible head of that 
Church, never appointed by him. The weak and 
crumbling condition of the kingdoms of the earth at 
the time when these assumptions were made ; their 
want of union each in itself, their want of religious 
life and social organization, their discords and divi- 
sions, their blindness and ignorance, made these 
usurping and ungodly claims to be for a while 
successful. Nations were beguiled, and sovereigns 
were overawed. Yet the success of this attempt at 
a universal empire in the name of the Church of 
Christ, never went far. Each nation, at least each 
nation of any vigour of character and freedom of 
mind, continually felt the consciousness that it was 
something in the eyes of God, and must for itself 
seek Him and find Him ; availing itself most joyfully, 
indeed, of the light which He might have imparted 
to their neighbours, and which they might thence 
receive ; — acknowledging most reverently that all 
Christians every where are bound together by their 
union with and in Christ, and are members of one 
body, of which he is the Head : but still expressing 



272 



SERMON XVII. 



their acknowledgment of this and of other Christian 
truths, each in the way which their historical con- 
dition rendered most congruous and effectual ; even 
as it had pleased God that they must, if they were 
to be intelligible to themselves and to each other, 
worship him in different languages. And when they 
had been drawn in and more or less entangled in that 
false scheme of Christian unity, under a foreign head, 
and with the infraction of their independent national 
action, they all, in proportion to the strength and 
light which God had given them, more or less cast 
off this grievous and unrighteous yoke, and asserted 
to themselves a national religious character, and a 
national power of action in matters of religion. Some 
favoured lands, and thanked be God, our own among 
the number, declared their rejection of foreign inter- 
ference and control in matters of religion, in a dis- 
tinct, loud, and emphatic manner ; and searching and 
finding that, with that false scheme of ecclesiastical 
unity, were mingled also false doctrines concerning 
religious truth, they resolutely and solemnly reformed 
both the one and the other. And surely, all we who 
are here met to worship God with a free spirit, and 
with a reasonable service, according to his word, have 
most abundant reason to rejoice that the nation was 
thus enabled, by God's grace, to seek out God's truth 
for itself, and to establish, for the inhabitants of the 
land in all coming ages, the worship of God accord- 
ing to this truth. And among the other ways in 
which the nation may be deemed happy, in having 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



273 



thus acknowledged the Lord for their God, let us 
always recollect this as one of the most important ; — 
that they thus proclaimed to the world and to all 
ages, that they deemed it both their right and their 
duty as a nation, to judge of religious truth; — to 
reject the false, and to embrace the true ; — to deter- 
mine what was God's will by means of the revelation 
which he has vouchsafed to men; — to follow that will 
in their public as well as their private doings; — and 
to seek His favour by National Acts of worship and 
National Institutions for His service. If we should 
ever hear any of our fellow-countrymen assert that 
as a nation we have nothing to do with religion; — 
that religion is a matter with which earthly autho- 
rities have nothing to do ; — that Nations and States 
can not and ought not to decide concerning religious 
truth ; — let us recollect that in all such declarations 
we are repudiating and vilifying our own history at 
every step. We are declaring, not only that the 
nation has acted wrongly in all the offerings which 
it has in more modern times made for religious 
purposes ; — houses of worship ; schools and colleges ; 
provision for religious teachers and ministers : — 
that not only these have been mistaken or unjust 
proceedings: but that at the great Reformation of 
the Religion in the land, the nation did that which a 
nation has no right to do, or power of really doing, 
in judging concerning religious truth and falsehood, 
Reformation and Corruption. Not only so — but let 
us consider further that in such declarations we 
w. c. s. T 



274 



SERMON XVII. 



reject, not only the Reformation of the National 
Religion, and the establishment of a purer Chris- 
tianity for one that was corrupt, but that we reject 
also the adoption of Christianity by the nation, even 
from the first. We thus maintain that those who 
rule the State ought never to have used its authority 
in establishing in the land Christian teaching and 
Christian worship, in introducing into its delibera- 
tions and its acts Christian voices and Christian 
principles. If a State, and those who act on the 
part of the State, have no right to judge for the 
nation of that which is religious truth, and to esta- 
blish, for the State, institutions fitted to promote and 
uphold and diffuse and carry into practice such 
truth, then we are, so far as the exercise of rightful 
authority is concerned, thrown back into our pagan 
condition. We are still heathens, and have never 
taken the Lord for our God as a people. But indeed 
we cannot even stop here ; for the pagans themselves 
cry shame upon us, as men utterly blind to the true 
dignity and office of a State, to the true sources of 
its order and virtue, its permanence and happiness, 
if, while we act for the State in all other things, 
boldly and with foresight, we turn away from reli- 
gion, as that with which, acting in such a capacity, 
we have no concern. With the most thoughtful and 
the wisest of those who acted and prescribed rules of 
action for pagan States, to determine concerning the 
worship of the Gods and the instruction of the youth 
of the land in all that concerned religion was the 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



275 



matter of first and fundamental care. And in no 
early barbarism was the notion of religion ever so 
dim, and in no pagan nation in its decline was the 
creed in which the citizens had been cradled so 
utterly outworn, that the rulers abandoned all care 
of religious matters, and considered that they did 
enough if they confined themselves to the care of 
the secular interests of their subjects. We cannot 
assert, then, that, as a nation, we have nothing to do 
with religion, no power of judging of religious truth 
and embracing it, no right to make it the basis of 
our national constitution and polity ; — we cannot 
assert this, without repudiating all our past history, 
and declaring ourselves, and all that we have and 
are, to be the result of a perpetual series of illegiti- 
mate and wrongful acts ; the accumulated effect of 
ages of national transgression. If we were to adopt 
such an opinion as this, we should not have to say 
with the psalmist, Happy are the people who have 
the Lord for their God; but we should have to 
utter a contrary expression, so shocking that, though 
nations may have in some degree approached to the 
practical application of such a view, no one yet, I 
think, has been bold enough to utter it in plain 
words : — we should have to say, Wise are the people 
who, as a people, have no God ! 

But it may be said, that however much the ex- 
pression may shock us, yet still it has so happened 
that there have been nations in our own time who 
have cast away, in their public transactions, all claim 

T 2. 



276 



SERMON XVII. 



to decide concerning religious truth, and have left 
every one to discover for himself, what is truth, and 
to worship God, and to teach those who look up to 
Him for teaching, according to the dictates of his own 
mind. They have been driven, it may be said, to 
this course of action, by the difficulty of deciding on 
the part of the State, what is the truth in matters of 
religion, when the citizens are of many and diverse 
opinions on such subjects, each claiming for himself 
the possession of the truth, and prepared to resist all 
measures by which the State should recognize as the 
Truth that which is held by those from whom he 
differs. And doubtless there may be circumstances in 
the origin or history of a nation which may increase 
indefinitely the difficulty of the State's acting, in 
matters which concern religion, as if it could discern 
between true and false religion. But that which it 
is important for us to bear in mind is this : — that in 
so far as a nation comes into this condition, it falls 
beneath the true dignity of which a nation is capable, 
and ceases to deliver any response to the higher and 
holier feelings of its citizens. Nor is this difficulty 
peculiar to matters of religion ; as indeed, religion, 
if it be a reality in men's hearts, cannot be separated 
from their lives, nor fail to affect their actions in 
every province of human conduct. The difficulty of 
the State framing its institutions upon one view or 
another of the truth, is not peculiar to religious 
truth. Upon the fundamental points of morality 
also, the universal rules of family and social life, there 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



277 



may be wide differences of opinion ; and if, notwith- 
standing such difficulties, men are led or compelled 
to live together as members of the same nation ; this 
condition of things does not make civil society im- 
possible, but it makes the civil society which is pos- 
sible, to be of a more degraded and meaner kind ; — 
a mere accomodation of men to men for the sake of 
material interests, not a union animated by the pur- 
pose and the hope of their assisting each other in 
the highest aims of which their common nature is 
capable. So, for example, we might conceive men 
who thought polygamy to be a violation of the idea 
of conjugal purity, and slavery to be a cruel wicked- 
ness, still compelled to live as citizens in countries in 
which the laws tolerated such practices. Nor can 
we say that they therefore cease to be citizens, or, 
that the nation ceases to be a nation ; but this we do 
say; — that such men, if they were good men, who 
had really at heart the good of their neighbours, 
would labour to bring their fellow-citizens to such a 
mind, that these vile practices might disappear, and 
that the laws should utterly condemn them ; and still 
more may we say, that a man, so deeming of marriage 
and of servitude, and living in a land in which the 
most perfect form of the conjugal union, and the 
universal freedom of all, are secured by law, would 
labour with all his might, as against the greatest and 
most terrible calamity, against any change of the laws 
by which, on the ground of alleged differences of 
opinion among the citizens, his nation should be- 



278 



SERMON XVII. 



degraded to the condition of one in which polygamy 
and slavery are established by the laws. 

Now here we arrive at a point at which we may 
derive a practical and most important lesson from 
the train of thought which we have been pursuing : — 
namely this — how earnestly we ought to labour that, 
being now, and. always having been, a nation which 
acknowledges God by its public ordinances and insti- 
tutions, we may not cease to be so, or in any way 
descend to that lower national condition in which 
the people, as a people, have not the Lord for their 
God. It may be well to bind this reflection upon 
our hearts ; — for it may happen that we may have 
need of it. It may come to pass, at times, that we 
think of our own direct personal relation to God, or 
of our relation to Him through Christ's Invisible 
Church, as the sole things which concern us; and 
then the thought occurs, that no change in the ex- 
ternal circumstances of our visible National Church 
can affect these solemn things. Whatever comes to 
pass, we can hold fast by the hopes which God has 
given us, and cling to Him without external pressure. 
If our Rulers do not direct us to worship God, and 
give us the means, we can find the means for our- 
selves. If the Church of Christ be not acknowledged 
by the State, it is not the less Christ's body. If the 
people will not have the Lord for their God, we shall 
not the less retain our resolve to have Him for ours. 
This is, I say, a train of thought which may some- 
times arise, when we are wearied with the wranglings 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



279 



of men as to the difficulty of the State's upholding its 
religious character. But let us reflect that in all 
such ways of thinking, we have a regard only to our- 
selves, and lose sight of the great interests of the 
nation as a nation. Be it so, that we could be reli- 
gious, even if we were not influenced by the atmo- 
sphere of national religion in which we live. Be it 
so, that on our own account, or on the account of 
Christ's Church, we do not need to ask for the sup- 
port, or favour, or sympathy of our Rulers, or to 
desire that they should be religious. Still, if not on 
these accounts, we must desire it for the sake of the 
nation. We cannot believe that the people can be 
happy if it ceases to acknowledge the Lord for its 
God. We cannot hope for the blessing of God upon 
the nation, if it renounces God whom it has acknow- 
ledged for so many ages ; — or even if it proclaim to 
the world that it has no longer any voice with which 
it can acknowledge Him. Not for the sake of the 
Church, but for the sake of the State it is, that we 
desire there should be a Church recognized by the 
State, and established firmly, as the piety of ancient 
ages has founded it broadly; — not to make the 
Church rich and powerful, do we wish this, but to 
make the State religious; and so thinking, how 
should we not regard, as the direst of national cala- 
mities, any event which should shake those founda- 
tions, or make the national recognition of God and 
Christ sound like a timid and irresolute, or doubtful 
and ambiguous utterance. 



280 



SERMON XVII. 



And when we persuade ourselves that, even if 
the State were to withdraw its assent to the Christian 
faith which it has so long professed, still we might 
be not the less true Christians ; — that if we could 
no longer rejoice in uttering our prayers and praises 
with those accompaniments and circumstances which 
make them a part of the voice of the nation, we might 
still utter them in a manner not less acceptable to 
God and beneficial to ourselves ; — when we say this* 
do we not speak in a light and shortsighted way, as 
men who have no true apprehension of the deep and 
pervading union by which men are bound together 
in civil society, and by which one age of a nation's 
history is bound with another ? If our Christian fore- 
fathers, in the ancient times, had not made it their 
most earnest and careful task to provide for the con- 
tinual worship of God, and the teaching of his will 
and his dispensations to all their countrymen in all 
ages, do you suppose that all we their children, who 
now inhabit the land, should have had our minds 
imbued with Christian truth ? — that we should all 
have learnt to repeat Christian prayers at a mo- 
ther's knee, and should have been every week called 
to religious reflection and religious worship by the 
cessation of worldly business, and the sound of the 
well-known summons to prayer?— that we should 
have looked upon all the most solemn events of 
human being — birth and marriage and death — as 
having a religious significance, which could not be 
left unuttered without doing violence to our nature ? 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 281 

Do we suppose that Christian teaching and prayer 
and praise, and the thought of God and of our de- 
pendance upon Him, would have been now as common 
as they are, if those who in former ages governed 
the land had made no provision for such things ? 
or may we not rather suppose, that, in such case, 
precisely because the Rulers in former times had 
made no provision for teaching religious truth to 
their countrymen, we should now have been led to 
the conviction that they did not believe it to be 
truth : and that this conviction would have impeded 
the passage of God's truth to our hearts? Must we 
not deem it a most blessed circumstance that they, 
the Christian Rulers of the land in ancient days, had 
none of these doubts and scruples, as to whether 
it was their duty, or their right, on the part of the 
nation, to set up the truth, and to abolish and destroy 
what was falsehood ? and would not that indeed be 
a mournful day, a day of ignominy and shame, of woe 
and trouble, when we should be driven to proclaim 
that we had lost this faculty which they possessed; 
that we renounced the right which they had so firmly 
asserted ; that we shrunk from the duty which they 
had so zealously performed ; — that the light which 
had lighted them was extinguished for us ; — that the 
sinews which were then strong were now withered ; — 
that with regard to all matters that concern its rela- 
tion to God, the heart of the nation was dead, its 
tongue condemned to silence, and its hands to 
sloth ! 



282 



SERMON XVII. 



And this brings to our notice one of the ways in 
which the absence of a national recognition of reli- 
gious truth must impair the religious comfort and 
hope even of individuals. Would not our Christian 
hearts die within us, if we had to live in our own 
land under Rulers who dared not, in their public 
capacity, utter a single word to the honour of Christ ? 
Do not men feel themselves degraded — in spite of any 
stern thoughts of individual independence which they 
may summon up in the recesses of their own hearts — 
do they not feel themselves degraded when, in the 
institutions of their country, there is nothing which 
corresponds to those which they deem the highest 
aims and attributes of humanity? Do we not, for 
instance, so speak — and most rightly so speak — of 
Freedom ? — Do we not assent to the voice which tells 
us that to live one of a nation who wear fetters on 
their souls, is worse than any bondage of our own 
person? that no external ease or pleasure could 
compensate us for such an infliction ? that no con- 
scious virtue or dignity could prevent our feeling 
a portion of the self-reproach which must cling to 
all? that in such a condition, noble feelings and manly 
powers instead of gathering strength must droop and 
pine, and even the heavens with their sun seem to 
grow dim, and the earth with its pleasant fruits and 
flowers to fade and wither ? — Do we not feel that all 
this is most truly and wisely said? and does it not 
make us resolve that we would, if need were, resist 
to the last drop of our blood, the aggressions of any 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



283 



tyrant force which should attempt to wring from 
us this so precious treasure of national Freedom? 
And however precious Freedom may be, is not Reli- 
gious Truth, as a national possession, equally precious? 
Would not the privation of this equally afflict us 
with a sense of degradation and constraint, — when 
that which claimed to be the sovereign authority 
over us had no feeling for the highest objects of our 
nature; — was, and professed to be, a mere material 
force, not capable of touching and handling spiritual 
things ? Would not this, no less than the want of 
Civil Freedom, dim the sun in our sky, and wither 
the flowers in our fields ? Would it not do this far 
more, inasmuch as it would bring upon our hearts, 
far more heavily, the conviction of God's disfavour — 
the persuasion that the light of his countenance was 
withdrawn from us ; — that the nation was not living 
in the sunshine of his presence ? And would not this 
persuasion weigh down even our personal endeavours 
to approach towards Almighty God ? Would it not 
throw a veil over our hearts, as the national per- 
version of the Children of Israel drew a veil over their 
hearts ? Surely this would be so 1 Surely the absence 
of a national recognition of Christian Truth would 
thus degrade and darken and distress each of us! 
Let us then ever bear this in mind, whenever any 
question of this kind comes before us. In various 
ways, we . may, one and another of us, be compelled 
to take such questions into our consideration. And 
when this shall happen, let us recollect that the 



284 



SERMON XVII. 



question is most grave and momentous: — that all 
levity and backwardness to defend the cause of na- 
tional religion, is giving up most precious religious 
interests of ourselves and our countrymen, of present 
and of future ages. Let us recollect that if those 
would be justly stamped with ignominy by all lovers 
of freedom, who should be slack, indifferent, or adverse, 
when attempts were made to deprive the nation of 
that precious inheritance of Free Institutions which 
has been transmitted to it by the noble and resolute 
men of former times, — so those will no less incur 
the deep condemnation and abhorrence of all true 
servants of Almighty God, who shall be careless or 
backward, and still more, those who shall be on the 
side of the enemy, if any attempts should be made 
to take from us that inheritance of Institutions for 
the preservation of National Religion, which we have 
also received and hold, even as a more precious 
inheritance than that other, but in truth, most inti- 
mately connected with it. 

May this be the firm resolve of all who hear me, 
and may Almighty God enable us so to hold to it, 
that we may ever forward his good purposes upon 
earth ! Or rather, turning away our minds from such 
tormenting fears, may our lot be to enjoy, during 
peaceful lives, all the holy ordinances which, through 
His blessed providence, have been continued to us 
through the ministration of His Church in this our 
nation, and may we transmit them unimpaired to 
those that shall come after us ! May we find our 



A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. 



285 



way to Him in the language daily put into our mouths 
by the prayers and praises of our Church : — may we 
hear His voice in her invitation to join in His holy 
ordinances : — may we join in her solemn services with 
pure hearts and minds, and make every such occur- 
rence an occasion of truly offering up ourselves to Him, 
seeking and obtaining the pardon of our sins through 
the sacrifice of His Son, and resolving to obey and 
serve Him more faithfully and zealously than we have 
hitherto done. Such pardon and such comfort may 
we, all of us now here, seek and find! Such reso- 
lutions may we all make, and may He, by the aid 
of His Holy Spirit, enable us to keep ! 



4 



SERMON XVIII. 



(1847. Easter Term.) 



1 Peter I. 13. 

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope 
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at 
the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

HP HIS is St. Peter's exhortation to the devout ser- 
vants of God in every part of the world, who had 
accepted the glad tidings of God's good purpose to 
save them through faith in Jesus Christ ; which dis- 
pensation Peter, with the other Apostles, had received 
command and authority to teach. The zealous Apos- 
tle, in this, the introductory portion of his Epistle, 
reminds them of the greatness of the deliverance 
which this dispensation brings, of the expectations of 
many generations of God's servants by which its 
arrival had been preceded and anticipated, of the joy 
with which it was received by those who estimated 
its import and effects aright ; and he calls upon those 
whom he addresses to put their minds in a proper 
frame to accept and welcome this great event, and 
invites them to let their share in it have a due in- 
fluence upon their lives and actions. He addresses 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS 287 

them as those who are elect, according to the fore- 
knowledge of God the Father, through sanctifi cation 
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ. He puts them in mind that 
this justification and sanctification of men, the pro- 
vision of the means of which was a part of the eternal 
counsel of God, and with reference to which the 
whole progress of the world had been conducted, had 
been full of an awful interest for the most favoured 
servants of God in foregone ages. Of this salvation, 
he says, the prophets inquired and searched dili- 
gently—those namely who prophesied of the grace 
that should come unto you. The coming of the sal- 
vation was revealed unto them ; and to them also it 
was revealed, that they were the ministers of these 
things, the bearers of these prophecies, not unto them- 
selves, but unto you. Yet, though their direct and 
immediate concern in these events was less than 
yours, they still, full of reverent earnestness with 
regard to the mighty plan of God's government and 
judgments, sought perpetually to obtain a clearer and 
clearer view of the end of these things. The Spirit 
which was in them testified beforehand the sufferings 
of Christ — testified also the glory that should fol- 
low; — and they looked with eagerness for the time 
and manner of these great events. And no wonder 
that they should thus eagerly yearn to see what 
was thus prepared for man : for it was no less than 
this : — that God — the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ hath shown to his true servants an abundant 



288 



SERMON XVIII. 



mercy, even to this extent ; that by the resurrection 
of Christ from the dead, He hath begotten them again 
unto a lively hope — unto an inheritance uncorrup- 
tible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved 
for them in heaven. And the prospect of this great 
blessedness may well support men through trials, and 
console them under afflictions. Herein ye may 
greatly rejoice, though now it may be for a season 
you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. 
Herein ye may find strength — that the trial of your 
faith, a more precious possession than gold, which 
perisheth, may end in its coming forth more pure and 
solid, when it has been tried in the fire as gold is 
accustomed to be ; and may thus be found minis- 
tering to the praise, and honour, and glory of your 
Saviour at his appearing. And thus, you have bless- 
ings immeasurable, all derived from your Lord Jesus 
Christ ; and thus Him, though you have not seen Him 
with bodily eyes, as I have, Him ye love as I do ; and 
in Him, though you now see Him not, yet now believing, 
you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory ; 
because through Him you receive the end of your 
faith, even the salvation of your souls. But this faith, 
this love, this joy, cannot be loose and unconnected 
emotions, detached from all the general habits and 
thoughts of your lives ; — a feeling of a privilege, with- 
out responsibility, or danger, or fear ; — sentiments • 
slight and transient, or obscure and remote ; — stored 
up only in some secret chamber of your soul, where 
they produce no effect upon your ordinary words and 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



289 



actions ; — leaving yon as frivolous, as slothful, as cold, 
as sensual, as selfish, as if they did not exist at all. 
Those who have come thus to perceive themselves to 
be the center and point of convergence of all the 
events which have taken place in the past history of 
the world ; — who perceive themselves to have passed 
from death to life, from perdition to blessedness ; — 
who perceive themselves thus made sons of God, 
brethren of all mankind, and joined with them in 
a promised inheritance of eternal life, which their 
career on earth must make them win or lose ; — men 
in such a condition, cannot go on idling and trifling, 
and sinning and making a mock at sin, as if the 
gratification of the body or of the fancy, the sub- 
mission of rivals, or the laugh of fellow-sinners, were 
the highest aim they could have. You know your- 
selves to be in a solemn and awful world ; the world 
of God's dispensations and promises : you know your- 
selves to be in a world of serious action and heavy 
responsibility, where all that men do has infinite 
consequences. You know yourselves to be in a con- 
dition in which, though you have vast blessings placed 
before you, you have also, hanging over you, through- 
out your course, the danger of losing these blessings 
by your own slothfulness or folly. And this being 
so, the reason of serious and sober and persevering 
exertion is plain. 

Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be 
sober, and hope to the end. 

Such is the import and connexion of this verse 
w. c. s. U 



290 



SERMON XVIII. 



with the preceding twelve verses, which form the 
beginning of St. Peter's Epistle. 

The metaphor which St. Peter here uses, in which 
the frame of mind and disposition of soul, which he 
requires of his Christian brethren, are described by 
an image and an expression taken from the attire of 
the body, as commonly used in his time, is still 
intelligible and impressive to us. We easily under- 
stand him to mean that those whom he addresses 
are to lay aside all sloth and inertness, all purpose 
of mere tranquillity and self-indulgence, all careless- 
ness and levity, all despondency and despair; and 
are, by a resolute effort, to put and keep themselves 
in a condition ready for action and movement, for 
labour and struggle, for defence and endurance. This 
it is, to gird up the loins of the mind : — not to desire 
to lie in flowing robes on soft couches, crowned with 
roses ; — not to fold our arms in our mantles, and look 
on the passing scene of life as mere spectators ; but 
to free our arms that they may act, and our hands 
that they may be lifted up in prayer ; — not to cover 
our heads in our cloaks, as those to whom the busi- 
ness of life is over, and who wait the end in gloomy 
self-abandonment; — but to gird our loins as Elijah 
did, when God's mercies came which he had waited 
for putting his face between his knees: to gird up 
our loins and bind on our sandals, as the angel told 
Peter to do when he took him out of prison; — to 
gird our loins and minister to our brethren, as, for 
our example, our ever blessed Master himself did. 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



291 



Thus it is that men are exhorted by St. Peter to 
gird up the loins of their minds ; and this exhortation 
he addresses, as we have said, to his fellow-disciples 
of his time; — to the strangers scattered through 
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect 
to justification by Jesus Christ and sanctincation by 
the Holy Spirit : and he urges this exhortation upon 
them, by representing to them the import, and the 
meaning to them, of that great event, which, so long- 
looked for, was then recent in the world, — the coming 
of Jesus Christ in the flesh, his sufferings, his resur- 
rection, and the hope and comfort which he had 
left behind him on earth for those that love him. 

Undoubtedly for these strangers who, thus scat- 
tered throughout the nations, had waited for the 
redemption of Israel, there was abundant reason, in 
the things to which St. Peter referred, why they 
should gird up the loins of their mind ; — why they 
should cast away the habits of sensuality, and selfish- 
ness, and thoughtlessness, and hopelessness, which 
had probably filled the course of their lives, while 
they walked as the Gentiles walked. The change 
which had taken place in their condition, by their 
becoming Christians, was so great, — old things were 
so passed away and all things become new, — that 
they might well be summoned to put their minds 
also in a new attitude. They had been called from 
death to life, and might by all means be reminded 
to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they were 
called. 

U2 



292 



SERMON XVIII. 



To us, my brethren, it may perhaps at first sight 
seem that no change has happened so great as that 
which took place in them, when they were converted 
from Heathen darkness or Jewish formalism to a 
living faith in Christ; or even, when their yearning 
hope of Him who was to redeem Israel was con- 
verted into admiring gratitude ; and they saw that 
God had put down the mighty from their seat, in 
the world of religious knowledge, and exalted the 
humble and meek. We have lived, from our birth, 
we and our fathers before us, among men to whom 
the view of God's mercy to man through Jesus Christ 
was familiar. We have always known, at least, have 
always had the means of knowing, that dispensation of 
grace of which the prophets prophesied, and of which 
they enquired and sought the time and the manner. 
To us, no such great event can have happened, or 
can have become now first of all known, as that of 
which St. Peter speaks to his friends — the things 
which, he says, are now reported unto you by them 
which have preached the Gospel unto you with the 
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. To us, there- 
fore, the exhortation founded upon this event, and 
depending for its impressiveness in some measure 
upon the newness and strangeness of the message 
thus announced, may seem to lose some of its fitness. 
We have always known that there was reason to 
keep our minds in a Christian attitude; and there- 
fore are not, it might perhaps appear, the persons 
who are, in the middle of their lives, to be called 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



293 



upon to assume such an attitude. St. Peter's " Where- 
fore" implies, " Since you have been Heathens or Jews 
and are now Christians ; — since vou have been unbe- 
lievers and are now believers ; — since you have been 
mournful and benighted searchers and enquirers, and 
are now enlightened and grateful subjects of God's 
new kingdom ;" — and since we have from our baptism 
been, as we trust, Christians, and believers, and sub- 
jects of God, the connexion of St. Peter s exhortation 
with the great doctrines to which he points is not, for 
us, what it was for the strangers to whom he wrote. 

But yet a moment's consideration is sufficient to 
convince us that this is not so : that the import and 
significance of the Christian Scriptures is not thus 
transient, partial, and limited. What was written then, 
was written for our learning, and will be found to 
have to our souls an application no less close and 
stringent than it had to the minds of those to whom 
it was originally delivered. And in truth, is not this 
plainly and evidently so, in the passage before us? 
Do we not feel that the expressions which St. Peter 
uses do apply to our hearts ? Can we not conceive 
ourselves included among the strangers in remote 
and widely-spread regions, to whom he addresses him- 
self? For what, if we have always lived within the 
sound of Christ's Gospel, and among the means of 
Communion with his Church and his true servants? 
still, if we have really used these means ; if we have 
taken hold of his salvation ; if we have become 
partakers of the hope of everlasting life — the incor- 



294 



SERMON XVIII. 



ruptible inheritance of which St. Peter speaks ; — if 
we have thus become really Christ's — we shall, of a 
surety, be able to look back upon a time of our life 
when this was not so. The mercy of God is old in 
the Christian world ; but it is new to us, who are 
but of yesterday, and who began that yesterday as 
aliens from God, or at least as careless and disobe- 
dient servants. If indeed we are now such as those 
to whom. St. Peter speaks those glowing words of 
Christian congratulation, — if Jesus Christ be he whom 
having not seen we love ; in whom though now we 
see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory; — if this be now so, — 
and most blessed they for whom so it is ! — if this be 
so, assuredly those who can now accept their part 
in this address of the Apostle will not fail to feel 
and to own, that there was a time when it was other- 
wise ; — when God's goodness and his provision for the 
salvation of sinners, though proclaimed aloud on every 
side from day to day produced no answering love 
in their hearts ; gave rise to no swell of joy in their 
bosoms. If we now receive the things which the Holy 
Ghost teaches, there was a time when we heard them 
in vain, with careless ears, and with vacant minds. 
And thus, these tidings are to us still recent : the 
solemn and affecting view of our position here pre- 
sented is still new : and we may well assent to St. 
Peter's application of it to the purpose of practical 
admonition, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your 
minds, be sober, and hope to the end." 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



295 



But again : — it is not merely because we can, even 
the most consistent and complete Christians among 
us, compare our Christian condition with a foregone 
unchristian condition, that we can thus sympathize 
with the exhortations addressed to those who had 
been turned from Heathenism, or from Judaism, to 
Christianity. Even if we put out of sight the change 
by which we became — if by God's grace we are so — 
earnest servants of God and seekers of salvation 
through Jesus Christ; — even if we take no account 
of this beginning of our Christian life, and suppose 
that we have been faithful soldiers and servants of 
our heavenly Master ever since it was engaged for 
us at the baptismal font that we should be so ; — still, 
the words of the text would continue to apply to us, 
and would be needful to animate and direct us in the 
course we have to run. For even among those whose 
convictions are most steady, whose love of Christ is 
most fervent and fixed, who is there that does not 
often need to be recalled to his better frame of mind, 
by a Word of Christian exhortation? Who is there 
that always remains with his loins girded and his 
lamp burning, (Luke xii. 35,) and he himself like a 
man that waiteth for his Lord ? Feeble and flickering 
is the love, drowsy and interrupted the service, of 
the most strenuous and zealous of Christ's servants. 
Even under the influence of the greatest dangers, the 
most awful prospects, their Master has to come to 
them, not once only, but again and again, and has 
occasion to say, What, could ye not watch one hour f 



296 



SERMON XVIII. 



Even the most vigorous and watchful sink down upon 
the ground from time to time, with loosened robes, 
and wandering minds, and gathering dreams ; and 
most wholesome is it for them, when they hear the 
voiee of the Apostle, who had himself known such 
temptations, crying out to them, Gird up the loins of 
your mind, be sober, and hope to the end. 

And when this friendly voice thus falls upon their 
ears, it needs no long array of arguments to show why 
they ought thus to gird up the loins of their mind. 
It needs no far-sought exposition to make them see 
how powerful are the reasons alleged by the Apostle 
why they should do this ; — that they are God's sons, 
born through the resurrection of Christ to an inherit- 
ance incorruptible ; — that they are subject to trials of 
their faith, like the trials of gold in the fire ; — that 
the end of this faith is the salvation of their souls ; — 
that the dispensation by which they are thus brought 
to salvation has been the great purpose of God in the 
providential course of the world; testified all along 
by prophecies, and containing mysteries which the 
angels desire to look into ; — these are views of their 
position which do indeed make it fit that they should 
gird up the loins of their mind, be sober, and hope to 
the end for the grace that is to be brought unto them 
at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

And thus, the exhortation which the text contains 
applies to all of us; — to those who can look back 
upon the time when they passed from the service of 
Satan to the service of God, and even to those who 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



297 



have most habitually lived a life of obedience to God, 
and of trust in his salvation. And if there be any to 
whom it does not directly apply, because they are 
not in the condition of those whom the Apostle 
addresses; — because they have not been brought to 
a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ — have 
not learnt to love Christ — have not looked onwards 
through faith to the end of faith, the salvation of 
their souls ; — if there be any to whom the words of 
St. Peter are thus inapplicable, they are indeed un- 
happy. We cannot call upon them to hope to the 
end, because, as yet, they have no hope ; but of what 
value is a life thus without any real end and aim ? 
And were it not far better for them also, to gird up 
the loins of their mind, and to prepare in seriousness 
for their eternal destiny, than, to attempt to put 
aside, by trifling employments and mad recklessness, 
the thought of that endless misery which hangs 
over them if their Christian task remains unper- 
formed ? 

And thus, this exhortation of St. Peter — to the 
strangers scattered over the world, applies to all of 
us, and may most fitly be taken to heart by us all. 
Let us then look for a moment a little nearer at the 
import of it, and see whether it does not admit of a 
closer application to our actions and thoughts than 
we have yet contemplated. 

The admonition to gird up the loins of our mind, to 
be sober, and to hope to the end, may be understood, 
as I have said already, as containing a warning against 



208 



SERMON XVIII. 



levity, against sloth, and against despondency. Let 
us consider these points a little further. 

A warning against levity may not be superfluous 
to most persons at every age and in every condition. 
Men are almost universally disposed to think too 
lightly of the great business of their being; — their 
lot in the next world, and their conduct in this world, 
so far as it bears upon that lot. But there may be 
periods of life, and habits of living, which expose men 
especially to this danger. Youth is lighthearted ; and 
that it is so, is a reason for gratitude to God. Youth 
may also be lightminded ; and this lightmindedness 
may be, by habits of companionship and love of en- 
joyment, carried to such an extent as to pervert and 
mislead the mind. When the natural gush of joy 
which belongs to the youthful period of our lives is 
allowed to take the form of an internal feeling of 
superiority to all which does not belong to the imme- 
diate circle of those with whom we live, and when 
we use the intellect and the fancy, as ministers in em- 
bodying this feeling on every occasion which occurs, 
we are running into this great peril. When we 
have thus accustomed ourselves to a ready contempt 
of all that does not fall in with our adopted notions, 
and have it for our main care to clothe, in ridiculous 
or odious images, the things which we are disposed 
to reject, and thus to seek the applause of those of 
whose fellow-feeling we are already secure* — when 
these are our practices, we are indeed in great need 
of the Apostle's admonition. Minds so accustomed 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



299 



cannot be said to have their loins girded. They re- 
semble rather guests loosely clad and reclining round 
the table at some extravagant and intemperate ban- 
quet. It is not in such a mood of mind that we can 
attain to the hopes and the blessings of the Christian 
course. It is not in such a mood of mind that we can 
even satisfy the requirements of mere human wisdom. 
Life is a serious matter, even if we regard it with 
the eyes of heathen sages. Even so considered, it 
involves at every step, questions of right and wrong, 
points on which we have to decide, and where our 
decisions will colour the whole of our future lives, 
and will reach, too, the deepest affections, the hopes 
and fears, the joys and griefs, of other persons, — of 
those who love us and whom we profess to love. 
And if not yet, still in a few years, our judgments, 
and our actions founded upon them, will exert a 
wider influence for good or for evil : they will affect, 
more or less, our neighbours, those with whom we 
are connected by professional ties, it may be, even 
whole provinces of our country, and the fortunes of 
our country itself : for the fortunes, of the whole must 
be determined in a great degree by the aggregate cha- 
racter and conduct of individuals. And with all 
these consequences depending upon our actions, they 
are surely matters for something more than a laugh ; 
the course which we reject should be avoided for 
some better reason than a jest or a by-word: the 
persons from whom we withdraw our favour should 
be condemned for some more real fault than that we 



300 



SERMON XVIII. 



have, for our amusement, surrounded them with gro- 
tesque imagery. If we guide, or misguide ourselves 
by such sparkling fallacies as these, what chance can 
we have of finding, for the future current of our lives, 
a course suitable to the condition of thoughtful men, 
who have had the full means of unfolding their in- 
tellectual powers, and are called upon to employ these 
powers in worthy uses ? 

But if this lightmindedness be unfit for our con- 
dition, considered merely as rational and accountable 
members of human society, how much more is it 
incongruous to our condition when we recollect that 
we are, as St. Peter says, heirs of an eternal inhe- 
ritance? Surely the gravest and humblest thought 
which we can give to each action that we do, and 
each judgment that we form, is all too little for the 
importance of the occasion. We have the weight 
of an immortal destiny to bear as we walk through 
the world, and may well, therefore, put our souls 
in the attitude best fit for the full use of all their 
powers. We have to take our place among things 
which the prophets searched and enquired about, 
while they ministered these things, not unto them- 
selves, but unto us, and into which things the angels 
themselves desire to look : how can we then regard 
our life, woven in, as it is, among these things, with 
any other feeling than solemn awe ! How just and 
reasonable is the Apostle's injunction, four verses 
later : Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear ! 
For it is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



301 



of the living God. Let us then gird up the loins 
of our mind and be sober ; — not slothful in spirit, but 
fearing the Lord. Let us endeavour seriously and 
strenuously to forward his good purposes here upon 
earth ; — first, in the salvation of our own souls ; and 
then, in the promotion of all good works among 
those with whom we live. Let us, as St. Paul ex- 
horts the Ephesians, be earnest followers of God as 
dear children ; and let all such things as are incon- 
sistent with this our condition not be once named 
among us — neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor 
jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of 
thanks. And instead of attempting to find, in the 
business of the world around us, anything which may 
be used for our scorn and laughter, let us turn our 
thoughts to all those labours in which good and 
earnest men among us are striving to minister to 
the good of their brethren, and to the diffusion, 
among them, of the knowledge and service of God. 
Much, no doubt has, in this way, been done in our 
time ; and cold must his heart be, and seared by 
the blighting blast of scornful levity, who does not 
look with admiration and love upon those who have 
been foremost in promoting Christian dealings in this 
our world of professed Christians. 

But however much the faithful servants of our 
Lord may already have done, far more remains still 
to do ; and upon whom is this task to fall, except 
upon us, who also profess to be servants of God 
and of Christ? Enough have we, in our generation, 



302 



SERMON XVIII. 



to do, that we may, so far as lies in us, uphold and 
diffuse upon the earth the knowledge and the fear 
of God : and when we have turned our thoughts upon 
this weighty task, we shall see that it requires the 
whole devotion of our powers and their most serious 
and strenuous exertions, and we shall assent to the 
Apostle's admonition, to gird up the loins of our mind, 
and be sober. 

But in truth, the task which is thus brought 
before us as the servants of God, who have in our 
generation to continue his service and to transmit the 
knowledge and the service of Him, unimpaired and 
extended, to those who shall come after us; — this 
task may seem, not only to require all our strength, 
"but far more than we can find in ourselves. We see, 
on every side, how hardly every foot of ground is 
won, how easily and quickly lost. We see the service 
of God grow faint, his worship silent, his laws obso- 
lete. We see languor and worldliness breaking up 
some of the highways which appeared to be prepared 
for him to travel upon, and differences of opinion 
separating those who were joined together in the 
desire to promote his glory : and thus, through sloth 
and through strife charity grows cold. With such a 
prospect before us, we may indeed be sober, but we 
must also be sad. We may be willing to labour, but 
it must almost be as those who labour without hope. 
We may be earnest, but we may be in danger of 
desponding. And here again, the remaining portion 
of the Apostle's exhortation comes in : Gird up the 



GIRD UP YOUR LOINS. 



303 



loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end. 
It is no cheerless, hopeless, joyless service which is 
required of us, but a zeal which strains towards its 
object with confidence and trust, and borrows vigour 
from hope. And the Apostle gives us the reason 
of our hope in stating the object of it : hope to the 
end for the grace of Jesus Christ. This grace in- 
cludes and brings with it all other blessings ; and the 
hope of this grace will support us in all our exertions 
to provide, both for ourselves and for others, the 
means of grace. He is faithful who has promised : 
and however, for a season, our hearts may be troubled 
by the withdrawal of his presence within our souls, 
or by the withholding of his visible blessing from our 
labours in his service, we cannot err nor fail, if we 
go on hoping to the end. All those his servants who 
have gone before us agree with one voice in assuring 
us of this. If we seek the Lord earnestly and per- 
severingly we shall find him; — shall find him as the 
propitiation of our sin, the source of our sanctifica- 
tion, the glory of eternal life, — shall find him also 
in the things without us, as the bond of love which 
unites us to our brethren ; the spring of hope in that 
which we undertake for his service ; the crown of our 
rejoicing in all that, so undertaken, succeeds. Grace 
is to be brought in an especial manner at the reve- 
lation of Jesus Christ, as our text speaks ; — at his 
second coming to receive to him his true servants: 
but to those who truly labour in his service, grace 
shall be brought during their labours as they need it, 



304 



SERMON XVIII. 



and shall help them onwards till they are prepared 
to receive that crowning blessing. — May this, my 
beloved brethren, be our lot ! May we so gird up 
our loins, and be sober and hope to the end for the 
grace of Jesus Christ, that we may escape the terrible 
fate of those who, by lightmindedness or sloth — 
still more, who by willing foulness and wickedness — 
reject the grace which is offered, and refuse to seek 
the justification and sanctification of their souls in 
God's appointed way. May God comfort us with the 
hopeful spirit of his grace, and enable us to go on- 
wards working his will, both in our souls within and 
in our business without. May he give warmth to our 
Charity, and firmness to our Faith ; and may he also 
give brightness to our Hope in Him, and hold it 
before us, ever to guide and cheer our daily path till 
we find his eternal rest ! 



SERMON XIX. 



(1847. Michaelmas Term,) 



Luke XVII. 5. 
And the Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 

T70U will recollect that this passage of the Gospel 
■ has a reference to a kind and degree of faith, 
which had its peculiar sphere of action among those 
who were enabled to promote the progress of Christ's 
kingdom on earth by the exercise of miraculous 
powers. The answer which Christ makes to this 
address, in the ensuing verse, is : " If ye had faith 
as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this 
sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and 
be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you;" 
and he then proceeds to enjoin them to do all things 
which are commanded, and even then, to look upon 
themselves as unprofitable servants. As if he had 
said, — You have certainly great need that your faith 
should be increased ; for if it were not very small 
indeed, you would not be so easily shaken and repel- 
led by the obstacles and difficulties which you meet 
with, as my followers. If you had faith enough, you 
would, in my service, have supernatural power. But 
w. c. s. X 



306 



SERMON XIX. 



if you ask for a faith which is to be accompanied with 
such power, and ask for it as a boon and privilege 
which I am to give you, without regard to your own 
obedience and zeal, you mistake its nature. First 
labour earnestly and devotedly in your duty, and 
thus only can you hope that your faith will grow 
to be an effective principle ; and even when you have 
laboured most earnestly and most devotedly, do not 
think that you have earned of your Divine Master 
such a reward as this, that your faith should have the 
power of changing the order of nature. When you 
have done all, say still, We are unprofitable servants ; 
we have done that which was our duty to do ; at 
most, no more ; probably much less : we have little 
right to expect that God will hear our prayers, so as 
to change, for our request, the laws by which he rules 
the elements of the world. — And thus, this warning 
of our Saviour to his disciples sends them back, from 
that miracle-working faith which they aspired to pos- 
sess, and which was, in the sequel of God's doings, 
given to them and to them alone ; and it turns their 
minds rather to that more ordinary and general faith, 
which we, and all Christians, must possess, as well as 
they; — the faith which works by obedience; the faith 
which hopes for grace, but does not claim reward; 
the faith which perseveres to the end, and yet leaves 
the end to God. They had said to him : Increase our 
faith, that faith which, as you have repeatedly taught 
us, can move mountains. Their Master replies : Ask 
first for an increase of that faith which can perform 



FAITH. 



307 



the humblest duties without claiming a reward. This 
faith, — the faith which is to guide and support you in 
the conduct of life and in the prospect of death, — this 
faith must grow to be the governing principle of your 
being, before that faith which shows itself in removing 
mountains and transplanting forests into the sea can 
attain to the magnitude of a grain of mustard-seed. 
And thus, that prayer of the Apostles', Increase oar 
faith, which they perhaps offered in a sense in which 
it was applicable to their case rather than to ours, 
they were taught rather to utter in such a spirit that 
it should belong to all servants of Christ, high and 
low, to us as well as to them. For we no longer hope 
for, or need, or have any reason to look for, those 
miraculous powers which were vouchsafed to the 
Apostles, as the means of drawing men to Christ in 
the first times of the promulgation of the Gospel : 
we no longer are empowered to move mountains or 
to raise the dead : we cannot expect that the working 
of our faith should affect the course of external nature : 
but we all need that faith which shall make us obey 
God's commands, and look to Him alone for all the 
good which we are to enjoy, in this world and in the 
w r orld to come. We all need the faith which shall 
make us feel our entire dependence, in time and 
in eternity, upon God, as revealed to us in Jesus 
Christ. In this sense, we have all of us great and 
crying need to utter this prayer, Lord, increase our 
Faith. 

Let us then consider this prayer of the text, in 



308 



SERMON XIX. 



some of the aspects which naturally present them- 
selves to us. And first, let us consider how much 
need there is that we should seek to have faith, in- 
asmuch as faith is such an extremely precious thing. 
Our faith includes, or is the foundation of, all the 
convictions and feelings which refer to God, — which 
connect us with Him, — which make us find support 
and hope in his promises, and access to Him in prayer. 
It includes all our spiritual comfort on earth, ail our 
hopes of heaven. In order that we may come to God, 
we must believe that he is, and that he is the re warder 
of them that seek Him. In order that we may come 
to God, we must believe that he has revealed himself 
to mankind in Christ, and is able to save to the utter- 
most them that do believe in him. If we have this 
faith, we can never be at a loss whither to turn, in 
our youth, or in our age, in our prosperity, or in our 
adversity, in solitude, or in the society of his servants ; 
in joy and in sorrow ; in the gratitude of happy 
affections ; and even in the bereavement which death 
at some time or other inflicts on all, — dashing from 
their lips the sweet cup of household love or tenderest 
friendship, — tearing the beautiful and fragrant flowers 
from the wreaths which they love to wear, — blotting 
the sun, as it for a time seems, from their domestic 
firmament. In the bitter winter of disappointed 
worldly hopes, in the gloom of mental struggles, in 
the wearying pains of a sick bed, in the agony of 
a final separation from those we love, what a terrible 
lot is ours, if we have not faith ! How does desolation 



FAITH. 



309 



become more desolate, grief become incurable, the 
knell of death become the cry of despair ! How vile and 
worthless, how incoherent and unmeaning, how dole- 
ful and burdensome does the whole scheme of human 
life become, if human life be under no divine rule and 
government; — if man have no Master and Judge, — if 
life end in the darkness of the grave ! When we con- 
sider what our condition would be if we believed 
ourselves to be without God in the world, or without 
means of access to God, we may well see what a 
precious thing is our faith in God our Father, and in 
Him through whom we have access to the Father, 
Jesus Christ our Lord. With this faith for our sup- 
port and consolation, grief may shake, but it cannot 
overwhelm us, except our own sin and impenitence 
swell its tide. With this faith for our guide and 
encouragement, how small do all temporal losses and 
crosses seem, except so far as they are magnified by 
the weakness of our faith ! With this faith for our 
teacher, even when we mourn over the graves of those 
we love, we mourn not as those without hope. We 
believe that they are gone before, whither we shall 
follow. We believe, and we know that if we truly 
believe, and walk onwards in faith, we shall rejoin all 
those dear friends who have preceded us in that walk 
of faith. • We know that earthly things must soon lose 
their value, even if we have not already found how 
rapidly they do so ; that we shall have to pass through 
the gate of death, even if we do not already see it 
near at hand ; but we believe that even when we pass 



310 



SERMON XIX, 



through the valley of death, the staff of our Guide 
and Master shall support us ; and that, beyond the 
limits of earth, and secure from the decay and ruin 
which await terrestrial treasures, there is laid up for 
us, to be enjoyed by those who become truly sons of 
God, an inheritance eternal in the heavens. These 
are boons, these are precious gifts, which faith pro- 
mises, and which faith gives; — which are preserved 
for those who believe to the end, and of which faith 
gives us the earnest and assurance here. And know- 
ing that this is so — how without faith we are thus 
poor and miserable — how rich and happy true faith 
can make us, — we may well utter the prayer of the 
text, Lord, increase our Faith. 

But we have not yet brought into view the whole 
of that which the text expresses. The petition is for 
faith ; but it is not merely for faith as the removal of 
unbelief The expression implies that there is already 
some faith, but intreats that more may be added. 
The request is, Increase our faith. We have some 
faith, but not faith enough. We believe, but make 
us believe more ; — more stedfastly, more deeply, more 
entirely, more effectually. This was the petition of 
the Apostles, and we cannot doubt that in their case, 
it was a needful request : this should be our petition, 
for we cannot doubt that it is still more a* needful 
request in the case of every one of us. All alike, the 
beginner in the school of Christ, and he who has 
learnt there for many careful years, — the wavering 
half-believer, and he who holds fast in his heart the 



FAITH. 



311 



sure mercies of God, — disciples like Thomas, and dis- 
ciples like Peter, have all alike occasion to say to 
their Master, Lord, increase our Faith. Faith is not 
an external and limited possession, to be acquired 
once for all, and held ever afterwards ; it is an in- 
ternal, active, progressive principle ; a part of our 
own being, an element of our life, which must grow 
with our religious growth, and strengthen with our 
spiritual strength. It must live in us and work in 
us ; and in order to live and work, it must be con- 
stantly confirmed, renewed, expanded. Faith works 
by obedience ; but with a greater fulness of faith, 
obedience is absorbed in love. Faith works by Hope; 
and as faith grows to its full stature, Hope grows to 
that perfection which casteth out fear. Faith works 
by communion with God ; and as Faith grows more 
entire, communion with God becomes more intimate 
and more constant, till it approaches to that com- 
munion which we hope to hold with Him, when this 
mortal shall have put on immortality. Faith fixes 
our thoughts on things unseen which are eternal ; 
and as Faith grows stronger, the unseen things become 
the only realities in the world, and things which are 
seen disappear, and are as though they were not; 
Faith has power against the dread enemy of life, and 
can support us through that last struggle from which 
our nature shrinks ; but Faith in her more exalted 
forms is hardly conscious of the terrors of this strug- 
gle, and Death is swallowed up in Victory. Such is 
the working of a Faith fully grown; such are the 



312 



SERMON XIX. 



effects of a lively and stedfast Faith, — of a Faith 
strong enough to master all opposing influences, wide 
enough to include all the portions of our human 
being. Such is a perfect Faith ; but who of us can 
flatter himself that he has such a Faith as this ? We 
have, I trust, all some Faith. We are all, in some 
way, believers in God and in Christ ; but who of us 
so believes, that sin, and coldness, and hardness of 
heart, and sloth, and servile fear, and the influence of 
the world, and the dread of Death, are overcome 
and destroyed ? We are all born into the Church of 
Christ ; but who has grown up to the fulness of this 
measure of stature ? We have all some Faith ; but 
who can compare himself with this standard, and say 
that he has Faith enough ? Who does not need, and 
who does not desire, to be brought nearer to this 
state of blessedness which is the effect of an entire 
Faith? Who is there, that with such a condition 
placed before him as the object of his hopes, may not 
and must not pray, Lord, increase my Faith f 

And let us not be withheld from cherishing such 
a desire, and uttering such a prayer, by the thought 
that such a state of Love, and Holiness, and Trust, 
is too far from us to be within our hope ; — that it is 
so distant as to be unattainable. If we would really 
advance at all in our Christian progress, we must 
learn to aim at objects even as high as these. But 
be it so, that such a state of God's servants as I have 
described, is rare, and not soon or readily to be 
attained; as in truth it is not; — still, we must en- 



FAITH. 



313 



deavour to make some progress in the path of a re- 
ligious life, and for this purpose, we still have need 
of this prayer, Lord, increase our Faith. For every 
step in our Christian course must be accompanied by 
an increase of our Faith ; — must spring out of Faith, 
and tend to the confirmation of our Faith. Our 
Faith in God, in his Providence, in his means of Sal- 
vation, in his sanctifying Spirit, is the very life of 
our souls. Out of this grow all our better thoughts 
and actions ; into this flow all the better influences 
which arise from the events of our life, and the pro- 
gress of our hearts and minds. Our Faith is the 
vital principle of our spiritual life ; and as in our 
natural life, our actions proceed from the vital prin- 
ciple, while that principle itself is sustained and un- 
folded daily by the nutriment which we receive, so is 
it in our spiritual life. We need daily supplies of 
spiritual nutriment, that we may go on daily doing 
such acts as belong to our Christian calling ; and this 
prayer, Lord, increase our Faith, is, as it were, the 
parallel, in the spiritual order of things, to that peti- 
tion which we utter primarily with reference to the 
natural order of things, " Give us this day our daily 
bread." Increase our Faith, is equivalent to this, 
"Give us this day our daily spiritual bread." The 
increase of our Faith is that bread from heaven, which 
must be sent us day by day, in our journeying through 
this wilderness, or we die. 

The increase of our Faith is that which helps us 
on, step by step, even though our journeying be slow 



314 



SERMON XIX. 



and faint. The increase of our Faith helps us on, as 
we have already said, first to Obedience, then to Love, 
then to Hope and Joy. It is something to go even 
as far as to obedience. Indeed it is much, very much, 
to go so far, when we pass thither from disobedi- 
ence ; — when we leave the land of sin and trans- 
gression, and begin to obey the Law of the Living 
God. To have our Faith increased so that it may 
shew itself in obedience to God's holy will and com- 
mandment, is a great blessing, for which we may 
well pray, Lord, increase our Faith, so that we may 
quit the ways of sin, and live in all righteousness, 
and purity, and honesty before thee. This is much : 
and may all of you who need it — and who does 
not? — utter this prayer in an earnest and faithful 
spirit ; and may God hear your prayer, and bless you 
with the fulfilment of your desire, and lead you into 
his ways, and guide you in them ! 

But if you have, by God's grace, advanced so far, 
you ought not, you cannot be content to stop there. 
To obey God is much ; but it is much, mainly on this 
account, that Obedience is the evidence of Love ; — 
of Love to God whose commands we obey ; — of Love 
to man, who bears in him the image of God. This, 
then, is a step which we needs must take. We must 
love God who has created us, who has preserved us, 
who has saved us, who has given us the means of 
grace, and the hope of eternal joy. If we believe 
that he has done this, how can we fail to love Him ? 
In Him is the source of all that we love in man and in 



FAITH. 



315 



the world ; Him, then, we must love above all things, 
if we truly so believe in him. And so loving him, 
our obedience will flow from our love. We then do 
his will as that of a loving and beloved parent : we 
then do good to men as dear brethren, — the children 
of our common Father. If this be not so, it is 
because our belief, that he is our loving Father, is 
imperfect ; — our Faith scanty : if this be so, we have 
much reason to utter earnestly the prayer, Lord, in- 
crease our Faith ! Teach us so to believe in thee, 
that we may love thee : so to love thee, that we may 
rejoice in doing thy will. Extirpate in our bosoms 
that evil heart of unbelief, which poisons our resolu- 
tions of obedience to thy commands, and alienates 
us from thy favour. Enable us to go on from faith 
to faith, and so to live to thee, that even in this world 
we may feel ourselves living with thee. 

And this, again, may be regarded as another step 
in the progress of our Faith : when, as I have said, 
our Faith begins to bear those precious fruits : — when 
it generates a Love which casteth out Fear. When 
it begins, I say to bear those precious fruits ; for in 
how few souls — if indeed in any — do those celestial 
fruits ripen, while they continue in the cold clime of 
this earth. Yet such fruits, an entireness of Faith 
does bear. Such fruits begin to appear, even on 
earth, in holy men and faithful servants of God. 
Such are the fruits of Faith in its fulness ; — a fulness 
from which all of us, we may fear, are very far, and 
therefore we may well pray, Lord, increase our 



316 



SERMON XIX. 



Faith : — a fulness which even the most advanced and 
favoured- of Christ's servants know themselves to have 
very remotely approached to, and to which they 
desire, by greater Faith, to press nearer, and therefore 
they too, no less than the newest and weakest of 
Christ's disciples, fervently and constantly pray to 
him, Lord, increase our Faith. 

But there is yet another remark which the text 
suggests to us, and on which it may be highly service- 
able to us to dwell : namely, this ; — when we feel our 
Faith to be feeble and scanty, we have a resource in 
prayer. When Christ says to us, ye of little faith ! 
our best reply is, the address to Him which the Apos- 
tles made, Lord, increase our Faith ! We shall in 
such cases succeed better by seeking the increase 
of our Faith in this manner, than by having recourse 
to any other quarter. We shall best augment our 
Faith in Gocl, in his goodness, in his redemption 
through Christ, in his sanctification through the Holy 
Spirit, by praying to Him, evermore to give to us 
fresh supplies of such a Faith. We shall best quell 
our doubts and waverings and difficulties, by running 
to Him who is the Father of Spirits, and who removes 
all our struggles and troubles, when he allows us to 
feel that we are his sons. Not that we are to avoid 
or neglect the use of our understanding on religious 
matters ; — not that we are to abstain from seeking 
the evidences of God's being and nature, of his 
mighty plan for the redemption of the world, and 
of his sending of his Son upon the earth to carry 



FAITH. 



317 



that plan into effect and to make it known to all 
nations and all ages : — not that we are not to seek 
to confirm and inform our faith by such reasons and 
supports as may be found on every side of us : but 
these will all acquire a far greater value and force, 
as soon as we are able to turn ourselves to God in 
prayer, and to say, Lord, increase our Faith. It is 
by such a direct application to the object of our faith, 
that all external testimonies acquire their meaning. 
It is thus only, that we are able rightly to read them, 
and to discern their import. Upon a heart never 
lifted in prayer to God, all outward evidences of Him 
and of His Son fall powerless and dead. They are 
as characters in an unknown tongue; we see that 
they mean something, but we know not what. The 
world, the Scripture, the soul, are, each of them, 
God's book given to man ; but none of these books 
can we understand, if we turn away from the living 
Author, and will accept no meaning but that which 
the lifeless page forces upon us while we gaze. Even 
when we are looking at the testimonies, which God 
has everywhere stamped, of himself, we shall not see 
the true force of what we behold, except we join, 
with our contemplations, prayer to God : Lord, in- 
crease our Faith, that we may see the evidences of thy 
being and excellencies, in the world without us ; that 
we may read with understanding what thou hast 
further told us, in thy Scriptures, of thy doings and of 
thy will ; — that we may in our own souls, receive the 
impulses of thy grace, and may discern the traces of 



318 



SERMON XIX. 



thy image there, marred and disguised though they 
be, by the working of human darkness and sin. 

And that prayer to God is the most effectual 
mode of weeding out of our hearts the seeds of un- 
belief, and promoting the growth of an effectual faith, 
is a lesson which is taught us alike by the direct 
and spontaneous working of our natural affections and 
wants, and by the deepest and most comprehensive 
insight into the operation of man's intellectual and 
spiritual nature. The lesson, I say, is taught us by 
the direct and spontaneous working of our wants and 
affections ; it was so taught to that afflicted father 
who cried out with tears to Jesus, Lord, I believe ; 
help thou my unbelief, (Mark ix. 24.) It is so taught 
to every one who, wavering, it may be, at times in 
his faith, still feels, even when his faith is at its 
lowest ebb, how precious a possession it is, and how 
miserable life becomes, how worthless existence, when 
faith is gone. A person in such a condition, is led by 
no calculation or train of reasoning, but by the needs 
of his heart, by the hunger of his soul for life, to cry 
out, Lord, L believe ; help thou my unbelief. He is 
withheld by no difficulties of logical arrangement, no 
subtleties of argument, from applying to Him whom 
he feels that he cannot endure to lose, and who he 
hopes will make his power manifest to him ; and he 
cries, Lord, I believe ; help thou my unbelief. Lord, 
reject me not for the littleness of my faith, but in- 
crease my faith. 

And this, which is thus the natural impulse of the 



FAITH. 



319 



destitute and craving heart, is also the course pointed 
out by the deepest intellectual and spiritual insight. 
Indeed, does not the very craving which thus finds 
its vent in spontaneous and passionate prayer, prove 
the reality of those objects for which we yearn ? In 
the natural world, mankind are not placed in a con- 
dition in which there is hunger and is not food ; in 
which there is thirst and is no drink. And how 
should it be otherwise in the spiritual world ? — since 
both proceed from the same author, — both must be 
framed on the same plan of benevolent consistency 
and harmony ? That man feels himself in need of 
spiritual aid and support, of pardon and purification, 
of peace and hope, which he can only find in God, — 
in God, Creator, Preserver, Governor, Redeemer, 
Sanctifier; — does not this persuade us, even on the 
calmest view, that as surely as there is a God who 
has created and who preserves us, so surely there is 
a God who governs, who redeems, who sanctifies us ? 
Without this, all the scheme of the universe is dis- 
jointed, broken, chaotic ; with this, all incongruities 
have their solution, all evils their remedy, all needs 
their supply, all promises their fulfilment. There is 
One who is able to save, even to the uttermost, them 
that believe; and therefore, there is a true significance 
and a harmonious fitness in that spiritual impulse, 
which impels alike those that are least and those 
that are most advanced, in the way of belief, — those 
who have least, and those who have most obtained 
the relief and consolation, the peace and hope which 



320 



SERMON XIX. 



belief brings — to pray unceasingly, Lord, increase 
our Faith. 

Perhaps there may be some among my hearers to 
whom it may be a matter of interest to have it shown, 
by an example, that, as I have said, the deepest and 
largest fashion of man's mental powers directs him, 
no less than the simple impulse of his needs and 
affections, to pray for increase of faith. Such an 
example, for greatness of intellectual power unques- 
tioned, and almost unrivalled, we can find among 
those who have formerly, in their generation, wor- 
shipped within these walls, as we, in our generation, 
do now. There was one, whose image, as he in his 
own home was wont to sit, now sits within these 
walls, who has been called the greatest and wisest of 
mankind ; and though these be terms of lofty praise — 
used, indeed, by one who wished to deliver himself 
in a pointed phrase, and employed by him to give a 
sting to the character of supreme meanness, which, 
far more unjustly, is joined with the others, — who 
was yet not unworthy of being called great and wise, 
since he was, as even his bitter enemies allow, a man 
of a most piercing and comprehensive mind, deeply 
versed in all the knowledge which the previous times 
had produced, and sagacious beyond all parallel in 
divining the methods by which knowledge was to be 
further promoted in the times to follow. And how 
does he regard the things of faith? or rather, since 
that is our more immediate concern, how far does he 
agree with us, that we are to seek for the confirma- 



FAITH. 



321 



tion and increase of our faith in prayer to the object 
of our faith? There are very many passages in his 
writings in which we might find an answer to these 
questions ; but let us place before us, as the most 
suited to the condition of all of us, and to our habitual 
employment, and as full of thoughts which we may 
constantly bear in mind to the exceeding benefit of 
our souls, — let us place before us his expressions, in 
that his Prayer which he calls " The Student's Prayer." 

"To God the Father, God the Word, God the 
Spirit, we pour forth most humble and hearty suppli- 
cations that He, remembering the calamities of man- 
kind, and the pilgrimage of this our life, in which we 
wear out days few and evil, would please to open to 
us new refreshments out of the fountains of his good- 
ness, for the alleviating of our miseries. This also we 
humbly and earnestly beg, that human things may not 
prejudice such as are divine; neither that from the 
unlocking of the gates of sense, and the kindling of 
a greater natural light, anything of incredulity or 
intellectual night may arise in our minds towards 
divine mysteries ; but rather, that by our minds 
thoroughly cleansed and purged from fancy and vani- 
ties, and yet subject and perfectly given up to the 
divine oracles, there may be given unto faith such 
things as are faith's. Amen'' 

Thus did he from the depths of his intellectual 
labours, lift up his prayer for faith. And thus the 
greatest and the smallest, the wisest and the weakest, 
alike fly to God to preserve and increase their faith. 

w. c. s. y 



322 



SERMON XIX. 



They seek, in communion with Him, the assurance 
that he is ; in appeals to Him for his salvation, they 
seek the assurance that he is mighty to save. And 
this we may remark before we conclude — with good 
reason do they do this: for communion with God 
does give to his servants the surest and most abiding 
evidence of his being, and of his dealings with the 
souls of men. It gives to men such evidence on these 
points as supersedes all other, and all need of other. 
He who is daily walking with God, needs not to turn 
to external evidences to learn that he is. He who 
meets God, morning and evening in his prayers, and 
often too at other times — when providences, or the 
wonders of the outer world, or seasons of common 
worship, or of solitary meditation, make Him pre- 
sent, — he does not require arguments and proofs to 
tell him that God is, and that he is the Saviour of 
those that seek Him : any more than he requires 
arguments and proofs of the existence of those who 
belong to his own household. He knows in whom he 
has believed. He knows ; and he believes not the less, 
though at times, through sin, or levity, or the cares of 
the world, or the ever-recurring coldness and hardness 
of his heart, he find himself alienated from God. He 
knows and believes, even because he feels his aliena- 
tion ; — he sees his Saviour, though he sees him afar 
off. Happy even in this, if he labour and struggle 
to remove this alienation ; — if he strive to draw near 
unto Him whose word can make Him whole ; — if he 
endeavour to touch the hem of his garment, as well 



FAITH. 



323 



as to see his works on others ! Happier still, and 
thrice happy, when he succeeds in these efforts : — 
when he reaches the feet of his God ; — when he feels 
that there is a blessing on his prayers; — when his 
sins fall away like a load which had oppressed him ; — 
when his coldness and hardness are warmed and 
melted away, by a near approach to the Sun of Right- 
eousness; — when the light of God's countenance is 
turned upon him ; — when the polluted heart hears 
the words, I will ; be thou clean ; — when the pros- 
trate soul receives the gracious command, Arise and 
walk;- — when the weary spirit welcomes the invita- 
tion, Come unto me, and I will give you rest. 

May this blessing, this happiness be ours ! May 
we have a true faith in God, and may our faith pro- 
duce such effects. May we take all occasions, and 
especially that blessed occasion of a nearer approach 
to our Lord to which we are now invited, of praying 
to Him, humbly, constantly, effectually, Lord, increase 
our Faith ! 



SERMON XX. 



(1828. December 17. 
COMMEMORATION DAY.) 



Isaiah XXXIII. 20. 

Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities ; thine eyes shall 
see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall 
not be taken down. 

T1TE are now met here to celebrate the return of 
" a day, on which our ordinances call upon us 
annually to revive the feelings arising from our re- 
lation to the Institution within whose walls we live. 
We come to disentangle from the tumult of daily 
thoughts and passions, the sentiments suggested by 
a calm consideration of the character of this Estab- 
lishment, whose children we are ; — to animate thus 
our emotions of admiration, of gratitude, of hope ; 
to excite and confirm no less our self-watchfulness, 
our humility, our good resolutions. We come to a 
yearly office of household piety: to trim the lamp 
of our domestic hearth with odorous deeds and 
words of kindly and solemn affection ; that thus its 
light may fall with no waning or wavering ray on 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



325 



our path, as we travel rapidly to the close of another 
departing year. 

This is, I repeat, an office of mingled joy and 
fear, of triumph and solicitude : it demands alike our 
thanksgivings and our prayers. For if indeed it be 
that we can look upon this our allotted place with 
no unfounded pleasure ; if we find to have issued 
from its courts a portion of that family of great 
names, that inheritance of great thoughts and actions, 
to which the eyes of all ages turn with admiration ; 
if its precincts have, even to this hour, been full of 
beneficial influences, motives, and aids ; we may well 
rejoice at these our blessings. But, standing as we 
here do in the presence of our God and Judge, we 
may not forget that to man on earth no blessing can 
be given without corresponding duties ; no eminence 
without its appropriate responsibility: — that no ex- 
ultation can be blameless which assumes the form 
of pride, no satisfaction in the past which makes 
us secure of the future. In the mid draught of our 
joy, in the very source of our self-gratulation, is 
mixed a sobering infusion of danger and trial; a 
remembrance that we have to act and to abstain 
as well as to exult and hope ; — that the glory is to 
them that fight the good fight even to the end ; and 
that the splendour of our arms and the brightness of 
our weapons, this wanting, are idle and unprofitable 
objects of our gaze. 

With this monitory reflection attending our 
thoughts and hallowing their employment, we may 



326 



SERMON XX. 



throw open our minds to that which offers itself as 
worthy matter for thankfulness and admiration, in 
the recollections to which this day is dedicated. We 
may turn to the past ; to the names bright with the 
lustre of learning and genius, of wisdom and piety, 
which adorn the various periods of our records. We 
may cheer and elevate our own souls by this spec- 
tacle of the excellence that man may reach ; we may 
drink in strength and hope and firm resolve and 
lofty thought, from the contemplation of their charac- 
ters and destinies, We may consider with pleasure 
all that is good and fair in the habits of the Insti- 
tution under which they lived here, and under which 
we live : — that this our nursing mother and theirs 
loves to minister food and encouragement alike to 
the reason and to the imagination : — that for the cup 
which she presses to our lips, she mingles the most 
costly ingredients of ancient and of modern times; 
all the treasured stores of antique genius and taste ; 
all the teeming fruits of modern intellect and dis- 
covery : — that she engages those who sit at her feet 
in a daily intercourse and communion, where various 
ranks and stations and ages, persons with various 
pursuits and views and destinations, meeting, we 
trust, in no harsh or narrow spirit, no suspicious and 
unkindly temper, stimulate and restrain each other : — 
that this our common body feels, and has felt, within 
its frame, the influences of a principle which teaches 
its members to reverence and cling to the institutions 
of the past ; to consider them as a most precious 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



327 



inheritance transmitted to ns from other times ; as 
supplying, whether in matters of intellectual specu- 
lation or of practical life, the best correctives to the 
hasty impulses of human caprice and restlessness and 
passion : and yet that not the less, it cherishes a sensi- 
bility to the free and active working of those vital 
principles in the mind and in the progress of man, 
by which traditionary ordinances require, from time 
to time, to be in their details regulated and enlarged, 
interpreted and revivified. 

With all these grateful reflections, these golden 
bands, to connect us with the past history of our 
College, we may well feel that we are not aliens 
to those departed worthies whose memories we re- 
verence and admire. Though we may be far removed 
from the splendour of their intellectual rank, we are 
yet their poor kindred in virtue of our common 
connexion with this our parent Institution. We 
claim with them an incorporeal blood. They are our 
ancestry. And we point to the long lines of their 
pictures and statues as the images that testify of 
our family; the badges of our high descent; the 
evidences that the spiritual world is open to our 
highest ambition ; that in the aristocracy of thought 
and virtue there is no station to which we are pre- 
cluded from aspiring. 

Any enumeration of our great names would be 
now but superfluous. The glittering procession is 
of too lengthened an extent ; and even our reverence 
and admiration might be vulnerable to weariness and 



328 



SERMON XX. 



distraction. Yet grateful and profitable it must be 
to fix our thoughts for a moment on some object of 
those better feelings. And it can seldom happen, but 
that with each returning season, some portion of our 
history shall have a more especial claim on our re- 
membrance and attention. At our last anniversary, 
the great name of Newton was pressed upon our 
minds with a more peculiar prominency, by the 
thought, that with that year one century had passed 
since his removal from this mortal life ; that it was, 
as it were, the birth-year of his immortality. The 
present year is similarly marked, in that with it two 
hundred years have rolled away since the birth of 
another of our most illustrious elders : he too, like 
that other, a founder and leader in the science which 
he cultivated : one, whose works and example have 
directed the course of later times ; and to whom, even 
in the present day, men look as one of the great 
original authors and promoters of those studies of 
nature which formed the joy and business of his life. 
The name of the excellent and unwearied ^ay, 
indeed, is not one which is commemorated only 
within the limited circle of College associations, by 
us, who might seem desirous to appropriate his fame, 
or ready to bestow a domestic kindness of regard 
on his memory. The admiration of men for his 
character, connected with the present year in the 
manner which has already been spoken of, we have 
seen, almost within these few days, marked by no 
common testimony. And those are scarcely now 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



329 



separated, who assembled from all quarters and from 
all classes, — men wise and learned and zealous, and 
full of all the knowledge of modern times, — to pro- 
claim that they considered him as their master, and 
were proud to tread in his footsteps : — that it was 
not in vain that he spake, like the royal sage of 
Israel, " of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Leba- 
non, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the 
wall, and of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping 
things, and of fishes." To us indeed these his studies 
shine with a purer and fairer lustre, in that they 
were by him pursued in a spirit of heartfelt and 
unsleeping piety : and that he thought it not enough 
to trace the nature of each herb and flower, and 
the wondrous beauty and skill which pervade all 
creation, except he could also lead men to read the 
wisdom of God as he has written it on these his 
works. 

It may sometimes perhaps seem to some as if 
in thus speaking of men from among our prede- 
cessors who have become celebrated, we were dis- 
posed to urge too much their connexion with these 
our institutions : — as if a brief and passing sojourn, per- 
haps an undistinguished career, among these scenes, 
gave us little participation in their merits. And of 
the informing and educing influences which may in 
such cases operate, we abstain now to speak. But, 
with regard to most of those in whose glory we 
most rejoice, no such thought can tame our pleasure. 
They, and he of whom we have been speaking among 



330 



SERMON XX. 



the rest, were ours, not by the ties of formal con- 
nexion only, but also by those of affection and long 
domestic intercourse. This was not their cradle 
merely, but their long-continued home. They found 
here not only nutriment for their young and growing 
powers, but afterwards strong meat for the matured 
and manly appetite. The good and patient Ray here 
wooed his favourite studies for no small portion of 
his life. We have in our annals the record of his 
participation in those various labours and duties 
in which we of this day are severally engaged. And 
those general views of creation which have informed 
the intelligent piety of succeeding generations, — and 
which, if now less known, have become invisible only 
as the foundation of works which have been built 
upon them ; — those reflections were, in their sub- 
stance, first delivered within these sacred walls, to 
instruct and lead to good thoughts those who then 
occupied your places and ours. Nor with our other 
greatest names was it otherwise. This was the native 
soil of their richest fruits. All that has clothed with 
an unfading immortality the name of 3 Newton was 
produced while this was his " quiet habitation " and 
the place of his long and almost uninterrupted abode. 
And 2 Barrow, scarcely an inferior name, the as- 
sociate and contemporary of Ray, and 4 Cotes, and 
5 Bentley, the disciples and friends of Newton; these 
all made this the scene of their best and most im- 
portant labours. It was here that they pondered and 
discovered, that they went on from page to page and 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



331 



from thought to thought. Our walls have been con- 
scious of their soliloquies. Their walks are the paths 
where we still roam. Their books are in our hands. 
Our hearths have been consecrated by their presence. 
We tread on ground hallowed by their thoughtful 
steps, amid the same reverend forms of tower and 
grove which met their contemplative eyes. And if 
the moonbeams or the night-breezes as they touch 
our battlements can still minister to us a calmness 
of repose, and refresh our spirits from the intensity 
of thought or the turmoil of daily life ; can we re- 
frain from imagining that they also must have felt 
these soothing and kindly influences mingle with 
their high thoughts, and that the workings of their 
great minds may have been tinged and pervaded by 
the unseen spirit of the place which still lingers 
around us? 

It were a pleasing and grateful task to call up 
the recollection of those who have thus given a sacred- 
ness to this our home by making it the scene of their 
enduring works as well as of their disciplinal studies; 
who have lingered in no ignoble rest by the side of 
that fountain from which they drank their earlier 
draughts of knowledge. Nor is our treasure of such 
remembrances either small or poor. Of some indeed 
of the former inmates of these courts, whose labours 
still scatter blessings round the world, the world re- 
tains, naturally perhaps and excusably, but a faint 
and careless memory. Yet it well becomes us to bear 
them in our minds, It well becomes us to recollect 



332 



SERMON XX. 



that when God had put it in men's hearts to open 
to all the sacred book of Scripture as we now read 
it in our own tongue, this College contributed no 
mean band of labourers to that excellent work : — that 
those who had till then been here habitually engaged 
in the round of their collegiate duties, gladly under- 
took the great but unostentatious office of delivering 
the word of God through all time to all countries 
where their language is spoken. The names that we 
can claim among the translators of the Bible are not 
few nor undistinguished. t 6 Lively, in no small de- 
gree the soul and support of the undertaking, till 
removed by a lamented death; 7 Radcliffe and Har- 
rison who occupied in succession the second station in 
the College; 9 Overall and 10 Layfield and u Dakins 
from among the body of the Fellows, are still re- 
corded as workmen in this great task; — men who 
lived the scholar's unobtrusive life ; were thus blessed 
with more than the mere scholar's modest usefulness; 
and so rewarded, can well spare the wider and louder- 
sounding voice of fame which awaits more brilliant 
employments. 

To those who consider man's true place and des- 
tiny, this offering of the first-fruits of our talents upon 
God's altar, is a consecration of the harvest and the 
field which no mere human application of them could 
give. Yet such other local remembrances as are most 
dearly cherished among men are not wanting to us ; 
and even the poetical mind, wayward often and ill 
content to dwell among the necessary formality of in- 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



333 



stitutions made for common men, has sometimes found 
here an atmosphere of no unkindly influence on its 
more thoughtful moods. 

The impetuous and vehement genius of 12 Dryden 
indeed, impatient as it must have been of tranquil 
thought, and confident in its conscious powers, rushed 
from these shades into the world in which it felt 
itself called to struggle and to conquer. Yet even he 
left not this abode till it had for seven succeeding 
years exercised its influence on that which he was to 
be. But to the meditative and pensive 13 Cowley 
such scenes were more congenial : and it was in these 
shades that he fed his subtle and moralizing spirit, 
his perennial spring of pious and virtuous thought. 
Here it was, as his friend declares, that those ideas 
rose upon his mind which, transmitted to our times, 
still please ; though that which to him perhaps seemed 
most precious, the jewelled garb in which he has 
attired them, is of a fashion which has passed away. 
It was here that he lingered, till he was upturned 
from his rooted place by that fearful civil storm 
which swept through the land, and so desolated these 
groves. And when, to use his own language, he had 
served twice seven years and more, with faith and 
labour, for a Rachel of kingly favour, who was denied 
him ; his fancy loved to place him, as " the melan- 
choly Cowley," here, " where reverend Cam cuts out 
his famous way," and to bring to him the visits of 
a muse who reproached him with forsaking the once 
grateful studies which had here delighted his earlier 



334 



SERMON XX. 



days. That poet of "The Temple" too, who strung 
to God's glory so sweet a lyre that he is not unfa- 
miliarly called the ]i Divine Herbert, offered up, for 
many revolving years, within these walls his strains of 
prayer and praise ; and found in every form and cir- 
cumstance of the externals of our worship here, some- 
thing which could wing his busy fancy to accompany 
his eager devotion. And though all he wrought, was, 
as he loved to describe it "less than the least of 
God's mercies," we need not fear to say that the con- 
sciousness of an ever-present Master and Redeemer, 
of an everlasting hope and destination, has infused 
into his thoughts a preservative and vital principle, 
through which they will long live in the minds and 
memories of good men. 

But it needs not that we should longer dwell on 
such examples. Let it be allowed us to turn for an 
instant to one other reflection. It is not from the 
instances of those only who have spent within her 
walls a contemplative and studious life that we may 
thus draw nutriment to the feelings of reverence 
which we bear to " our Zion, the city of our solem- 
nities." It is no less grateful to notice that those 
whose higher fortune has, often with a doubtful kind- 
ness, transferred them after a short sojourn here, into 
the world of active and social life, have not seldom 
carried with them a cordial and duteous feeling which 
made them, when good achieved in speculation or 
action had earned them fame, glad and ready to wreath 
their glory with that of this their nursing mother. 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



335 



There is a name upon our rolls which is by men 
esteemed scarcely second even to that of Newton. 
There is a book of which the first words thus declare : 
" 15 Francis of Verulam thus thought and reasoned ; 
and deemed that, for his thoughts to be known to 
the living and to future generations, was of concern 
to them :" and of which book, nevertheless, men have 
ever agreed to confess that he spake not too proudly. 
For this man was, as it were, invested by Nature with 
the privilege of declaring her laws, as by his Sove- 
reign he was invested with the dignity of declaring 
the laws of his kingdom. And this book contains 
a legislation delivered almost in the spirit of pro- 
phecy, for that kingdom of science which Newton 
afterwards conquered. And let it be permitted us on 
this day to bring forth from our records the words 
which he addressed to this Community, when, unfold- 
ing that view of the nature of knowledge which was 
thereafter to govern all men's minds, he made of 
his work an offering of kindness and duty, not 
unworthy to be placed among the most valued of 
our treasures. 

"All things owe that which they are, and their 
advancement, unto their origins. Since therefore I 
drank from your fountains the beginning of sciences, 
it hath seemed right to me to return to you the 
augmentations of the same. And I trust that these 
our studies will grow up the more prosperously 
among you, as it were in that which hath been their 
native soil. Wherefore I exhort you, that retaining 



336 



SERMON XX. 



the modesty of your minds, and the reverence which 
is due to antiquity, you be not wanting also to the 
advancement of knowledge ; but rather that, next to 
the sacred volume of God's word and scripture, you 
do in the second place perpetually and diligently 
peruse that great volume of God's works and crea- 
tures, whereunto all other books are but as com- 
mentaries. Fare you well." 

This was the dignified strain of filial regard, the 
lofty call to share his high career, which that eloquent 
voice, as well became it, uttered. And these are sen- 
tences which, in no unsubstantial aspiration, we might 
inscribe upon our gates and within our halls, to re- 
mind ourselves and all of the high aims which should 
ever here guide and animate our course. Nor need 
we fear to remember that such an appeal was made 
to those whose successors we are, when we recol- 
lect how worthy a response to this high-toned sum- 
mons was, in no protracted course of years, echoed 
from among these walls : that of those who did, as 
he exhorted, unrol and read the great volume of 
nature, they who have been already spoken of, Newton 
and Ray, were both the foremost and the greatest ; 
and that each of them, with regard to the page which 
he more peculiarly studied, has been the master from 
whom others, in later days, have derived the best 
elements of their lessons. We may, too, not unwil- 
lingly recollect that Herbert, already the theme of 
our remembrances, was the friend and valued coun- 
sellor of that great lawgiver; and that none more 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



337 



deeply understood or spoke more worthily of that 
mighty intellectual code, than the philosophic Cowley. 
If, therefore, it is our boast, that that book of the 
Principles of the Philosophy of the Universe, 
which must ever stand single and unparalleled among 
the works of men, is entirely ours; had here its 
conception and birth and growth : it is also true, 
that that New Organ of Philosophizing, a volume 
no less of peculiar and unrivalled dignity, pertains 
to us by no slight or doubtful claim. It had within 
the circuit of our walls its first germ and origin ; and, 
though born under another roof, it returned, as it 
were, to this its ancestral home ; found in our schools 
those who recognized its language ; who exulted in 
its excellencies; who promoted with the zealous affec- 
tion of kindred and lovers the yet obscure beginnings 
of its majestic fortunes. 

It is, therefore, with no vain and overweening 
fondness that we consider the fame and character of 
such immortal names as those now mentioned, to 
belong to the institution of which we are members. 
This their intellectual parent has a portion of their 
glory, as she awoke their speculations and invigorated 
their powers. Hither, as to their fountain, those 
bright stars repairing, drew in their golden urns 
that light which they have since been pouring among 
the generations of men. And it is thus with ao 
transient or lukewarm glow that our affections turn 
to that College to which theirs also turned. I fear 
not to speak thus for all. We are knit to this our 
w. c. s. Z 



338 



SERMON XX. 



present home by no common ties : — by that which 
has been and by that which is ; by admiration and 
pleasure; by memory and hope: — by the joys of 
gratified taste, of awakened imagination, of expand- 
ing knowledge, of dawning speculation; perhaps of 
purposes confirmed and errors shunned and feelings 
bettered : — by labour and struggle, and contagious 
energy and difficulty overcome : — finally, by the pre- 
cious acquisition, it may be, of dear and valued 
friends ; of friends without, whose looks are the sun- 
shine of our lives ; of friends in our own bosoms, 
the convictions and resources and supports, whose 
benefits end not with life itself. Urged by such 
impulses and blessings, it may well be that our hearts 
turn with a glad kindness towards this our beloved 
College. And we wonder not that, even after years 
of absence and change, and in the remoteness of the 
farthest corner of the earth, at its name the eye 
should sparkle and the heart bound, and a thousand 
thoughts of gratitude and pleasure and tenderness 
start unbidden from their hiding-places. 

What then remains ? In words, little ; in sub- 
stance, much ; or may we not rather say, all. For 
this thought presses itself upon us as the great real 
and practical conclusion to which good and con- 
scientious minds must be impelled, by the views and 
recollections in which we have been indulging : — 
That a duty is incumbent upon us to feed, so far as 
we can, from our own internal sources, this stream of 
virtuous and elevated thought, of beneficial and enno- 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 339 

bling influences, which thus has oeen flowing on 
from age to age and from generation to generation. 
We live not for ourselves alone. We are not here 
as idle spectators only : or with no higher office, than 
to select from the recollections of the place so much 
as may minister to our pride, from its opportunities 
so much as may be subservient to our pleasure. We 
may not turn aside from other cares and claims. 
To share the motives, the opportunities, the hope, 
the zeal, the sympathy, which belong to this our 
position, is not natural and beneficial only, but right 
also. It is that spirit which, if it fade or fail, all the 
fair lineaments in which we thus rejoice, will soon 
be dimmed and disfigured. This " our Zion, the 
city of our solemnities, our quiet habitation, our 
enduring tabernacle," depends on our unfailing and 
combined support for the continuance of her solem- 
nities, her quiet, her security. Her constitution, and 
ancient usages, and laws, and ceremonies, have for us 
a deep and parental sanctity; her welfare and pros- 
perity a perpetual and paramount obligation. These 
are demands and duties to be acknowledged, not with 
an unwilling and scanty service ; not with a captious 
and ungracious assent : but rather with a free and 
ready spirit ; lending itself gladly to the purposes 
of this our instituted rule: studying to clothe its 
ordinances with the dignity of respect and efficacy ; 
and desiring only to see them assume the wisest and 
most stable forms, that they may so promote the best 
and worthiest ends. 

Z9. 



840 



SERMON XX. 



But again. If indeed we do feel any elevation 
of soul, any gush of our purer emotions, when we 
think of the great names with which we thus claim 
a domestic connexion, we must feel also that the 
proper business and end of this impression is, to raise 
our minds above all that is unworthy of such a rela- 
tionship ; all that is base or selfish ; all that is violent 
and unregulated ; all that is bad and foul and un- 
christian. Let us act as if we were conscious of 
belonging to the family of intellectual and moral 
eminence from which we trace our descent. Such 
were our ancestors, let us not disgrace them. We 
write upon our ensigns that Virtue is true Nobility*. 
Let it appear that those who have marched under 
a banner so inscribed have imbibed that nobility of 
the mind to which we are thus taught to aspire : the 
spirit of frank and open bearing; of self-command 
and self-watchfulness ; of mutual respect and for- 
bearance and charity. 

Lastly, let us bear in mind this : — That the sincere 
and devout Christian alone has any true elevation in 
his greatness; any security or permanence in his 
virtue : — that all our true and real advancement and 
glory have been and must be connected with a con- 
viction of our true relation to Almighty God : — that 
all our greatest lights and worthies have been most 
peculiarily pious and religious men : — that those whom 
I have to-day more particularly mentioned, Bacon 
and Herbert and Cowley and Ray and Newton, were 

* The College Motto is "Virtus vera Nobilitas." 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



341 



not only sincere Christians, but most eminently and 
signally devout. Their writings are full of the breath- 
ings of an habitually religious spirit. Bacon, who in 
his loftiest moods touches the things which pertain 
to our salvation with a majestic but awestruck elo- 
quence, soothed also the hours of sickness by clothing 
in devotional verse the prayers of the royal Psalmist 
of Israel ; and with a true feeling of Christian fitness 
and love, inscribed this labour of religious thought 
to his friend, the Poet of The Temple. Of him, this 
friend, what can we say but that his life and powers 
seemed to be consecrate to God and Christ. Nor 
can we less revere the fervent and simple piety of 
Ray, nourishing itself and all coming generations by 
draughts from every fountain of nature ; nor less, 
that reverent humility and childlike devotion of New- 
ton, of which all men know. Nor was it otherwise 
with that other poet, whose verse and prose are 
marked with virtuous and Christian thoughtfulness, 
and whose last labours of religious research and 
meditation were ended only with his closing life. In 
all these men, their faith was not doubtful, their hope 
not faint, their zeal not cold. They fought under the 
banner of the Cross of Christ, and cast the spoils of 
their victories at the feet of their God. Let us then 
bear this in mind in all our joy for the past glories 
of our College; in all our efforts and vows for her 
present and future prosperity. It is thus alone that 
we can hope for strength and permanence, for peace 
and blessing. It is thus that we shall obtain a share 



342 



SERMON XX. 



in the promise, of which a part formed my text, and 
which speaks as an animating and vivifying voice to 
all who feel the import of its exhortations, and strive 
to earn its rewards. 

" Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities ; 
thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, 
a tabernacle that shall not be taken down : not one 
of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither 
shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But the 
glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers 
and streams to defend us ; wherein shall go no hostile 
galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby 
to harm us. For the Lord is our judge ; the Lord is 
our lawgiver ; the Lord is our king ; he will save us." 



SERMON XXI. 



(1838. December 15. 
COMMEMORATION DAY.) 



Hebrews III. 13. 
Exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day. 

TN this, as in other respects, the precepts of our 
Divine Master and his inspired followers are most 
wise and kind ; — that they do not command us each to 
sustain his better feelings and hopes by the solitary 
strength of his own soul alone ; but they direct us to 
assist each other in this task by mutual converse and 
exhortation. If we were left each to himself ; — if we 
stood apart from each other, with no recognition of a 
common interest and common sympathy in the great 
ends of our being ; it might well be that all of us, in 
some dark or some thoughtless moment, might find our 
convictions waver, our strong resolves bend, our bright 
hopes grow dim, our patience fail, our love wax cold. 
But instead of this, we are bidden to exhort one ano- 
ther : and the cheering and warning voice of a brother, 
thus heard in exhortation, may dissipate the brooding 
shadows, and restore us to our better selves. But still 



344 



SERMON XXI. 



more ; — even when we feel no such trouble of the spirit 
and sinking of the heart ; when all participate in the 
same feelings and affections ; when like thoughts are 
passing through the minds of a whole society, and 
need but to be expressed, to be cordially assented to 
by all ; — still more, under such circumstances, is it a 
gracious and gladdening command that we should 
exhort one another; that some one should be ap- 
pointed, by some convenient rule, who may give a voice 
to the common sentiment ; may utter reflections such 
as all may acknowledge for their own, or at least may 
admit as reasonable and fitting; that some one, im- 
pelled and sustained by the responsibility of such an 
office, should endeavour to say, in however inadequate 
a manner, a word in season. 

And as the general commands of the first teachers 
of our faith direct us to such a course, the special 
arrangements of the Institution to which we belong, 
urge it upon us in a more peculiar manner. For we, 
who continue, in our maturer years, to belong to and 
abide in this Christian Community, are called upon by 
its ordinances, on this and on other occasions, to offer, 
in this sacred place, a word of exhortation, each in 
his turn to the others. The various solemnities of the 
Christian year, and the sure and constant progress by 
which one year follows another, bring to us in suc- 
cession such tasks as I have now to execute ; — invest 
us for a time with the office of monitor ; make it our 
place to endeavour " to provoke you to love and good 
works." Above all, on this day it is our business to 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



345 



invite you to the love and the good works, which have 
for their object this Community in which we live, this 
Institution of which the interests are committed to our 
hands, this Family of which we are members. We 
stand here, as many have for centuries before us stood, 
as many others, we trust, of generations yet unborn, 
shall hereafter stand, to remind you of the blessings 
bestowed on and through this College; perhaps to 
point out grounds why we may admire and rejoice in 
its fortunes; but also to speak of reasons why we 
should be earnest in performing the duties which 
our relation to the society imposes upon us. He who 
thus, for a passing anniversary, has to preach the claims 
of this College, may well feel that there is something- 
solemn in such an office, by which he is called upon 
to take his place, for a brief and transitory moment, 
in a succession extending through ages, and dealing 
with the interests and character of a body which sur- 
vives so many generations of those who are the organs 
of its utterance. The House to which we belong 
stands stedfast from century to century ; but we, who 
are for the time its ministers and representatives, pass 
rapidly away, like the leaves of the forest. One race 
succeeds another, as youth rises to manhood, and man- 
hood declines into age : and every return of this occa- 
sion reminds us how little share we have personally in 
the permanence of which we love to boast as a body. 
Those whom we have been accustomed to look upon 
with regard, and listen to with delight, are smitten 
down upon the bed of sickness ; and one by one, sooner 



346 



SERMON XXI. 



or later, melt away from among us, The voice that is 
now lifted up in your service will, in a few years at 
the most, be heard no more in these walls ; and other 
tongues than ours shall discourse, and other hands 
shall labour, and other heads shall busy themselves, 
on behalf of that body which we now so fondly 
identify with ourselves. But which of us gathers from 
such reflections any other lesson than this; — that 
while we are yet here, while time and power, while 
thought and voice are granted us, we should use the 
gifts to the honour and service of the gracious Giver ; 
and, as one main part of such a lesson, that we should 
employ those faculties in animating each other to such 
labours, and such a frame of mind, as best may further 
the purposes of this soeiety, by which we are connected 
with each other, with the past and with the future. 
If our time here be short, the greater is the rea- 
son why we should use it well. If no revolutions of 
years perhaps may again bring back this office to us, 
it well becomes us to discharge it with a serious faith- 
fulness. To us the injunction of the Apostle in the 
text comes charged with a peculiar significance : 
" Exhort one another, while it is called To-day." 

The occasion which now assembles us, the Com- 
memoration of those who have benefited and those 
who have graced this College, might perhaps to some 
persons appear to furnish occasion of pride. For 
assuredly it is no poor or ignoble company with which 
we are thus led to associate ourselves; — nor pale or 
scanty rays of glory are they, according to the estimate 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



347 



of human vision, which beam from the laurelled brows 
of our predecessors. Of great men who have been sent 
upon earth, the foremost for acute and penetrating 
intellect, for deep and comprehensive thought, have 
moved familiarly through our courts, and worshipped 
habitually within these walls. And with these, no 
small company of those who, engaged in active life, 
have swayed the minds of others ; and a sacred band 
of those who have discharged a far more precious 
service, studying ,the commands of God, and making 
them better known to men. And if the powers 
and gifts of these our ancestors descended to us by 
inheritance, and became a part of our own means and 
ability, we might well rejoice ; and might be — not 
indeed proud, for pride is not the passion which such 
endowments inspire, — but glad, that such noble talents 
were committed to our trust. But when we look back 
upon the former times and former tenants of this Col- 
lege, may we not rather feel, how vast the disparity is 
which separates us from them ; how little fit we are to 
stand in their place; how unworthy to support the 
name which they have borne ! 

Who among us is so extravagant as to imagine 
that men in future times shall speak of us as we now 
speak of them? A few years ago it chanced that 
journeying in a remote part of this land, I found the 
tomb of one who had been in former days a member 
of this our household, and a dweller within its walls. 
And on the funeral stone it was inscribed that the 
time of his abode here was that of Barrow and of 



348 



SERMON XXI. 



Newton. Those names were, even in their own day, 
taken as the marks of a great epoch ; while we must 
reckon our years, not by annals in which other names 
are placed as the successors of theirs, but by measuring 
our distance below them. And if we have ceased, not 
only to resemble such men in our powers, but to share 
in the spirit with which they pursued their course ; — 
if we can scarcely comprehend the writings on which 
their fame rests; — if we think it much to pursue feebly, 
scantily, and for worldly purposes, some one branch of 
those studies which they, with unquenchable energy 
and generous prodigality of labour, followed over the 
whole field of literature and science ; — if we are im- 
patient of intellectual exertion and constraint, and 
rebellious against that training of the intellect by 
which we become capable of understanding, at least, 
the labours of their minds ; — if any part of this be so, 
we may well acknowledge, that we have, in the recol- 
lection of such names as have been mentioned, small 
cause for exultation and pride. 

In truth, we then only draw, from these and the 
like recollections, the proper lesson, when we allow 
them to teach us, not pride, but humility. That lesson 
lies at the threshold of all genuine excellence. With- 
out that temper, our weaknesses and defects are not 
only manifest but ridiculous. And so, without doubt, 
those persons have constantly felt, who have been best 
able to comprehend the real merits and achievements 
of the most gifted of the men whose names stand on 
our records. Those who have most fully meditated 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



349 



on the profound reason, the wide research, the sure 
sagacity, the pure aims and steady purposes of the 
great men of the past, have risen from the contempla- 
tion with reverent, not with exulting minds. They 
have felt awed, as brought into the presence of 
superiors ; not elate, like some weak man unworthily 
admitted into an illustrious company. Far from us 
be it, to allow any thought of pride or self-compla- 
cency to arise in our minds on account of any former 
merits or excellencies of the society to which we 
belong. We can only feel that such things increase 
the weight of responsibility which rests upon us, not 
our ability to bear it. They elevate the standard with 
which we ought to compare ourselves, but they make 
us conscious how far we fall below its full measure. 

To all men of clear and sober minds, any lustre 
which may have adorned this their College, any repu- 
tation which it may have enjoyed, is a matter of grave 
reflection indeed; — a thought to animate and point 
their exertions, to dispel all levity and indolence ; but 
assuredly not to inspire any overweening self-opinion, 
or insolence of spirit. If such dispositions arise in 
any breasts, it must be in those of the most thought- 
less and ignorant only: — of those who, full perhaps 
of the new pleasure of the admiration of intellectual 
greatness, are yet so unaware of its real nature, that 
they deem they may at once, without merit or labour 
of their own, expect to share in the superiority which 
it bestows; — who imagine that the deference which 
men willingly pay to excellence, when it appears with 



350 



SERMON XXI. 



its genuine attributes, may be claimed by all who 
stand within the circle in which it has dwelt. There 
is a satisfaction, it seems, for light and vulgar minds, 
in the persuasion that they possess some title in virtue 
of which they may look down on those around them ; — 
may assume that, although untried themselves and un- 
approved, they have acquired a latent power of judging 
of what is good and bad ; — may deem that a few de- 
preciating words from their lips, destroy at once the 
merit of the patient labours and disciplined exertions 
of all who belong not to themselves. But we need 
not stop to point out how idle and shallow, how in- 
experienced and foolish, this temper is ; — how far 
different is the tone of thought of those who have 
really engaged in the successful exertions of the mind 
or the grave researches of solid learning. To the 
genuine student, of whatever kind of knowledge, every 
one who has given his strength to similar pursuits is 
a friend and a brother. And narrow indeed must his 
views be, and scanty his progress, who has not yet 
advanced so far as to discover, that in every quarter 
where there are earnest students and lovers of excel- 
lence, there are persons to whom he must look with 
deference and respect; — -acknowledging his own in- 
feriority, and perceiving, with humiliating clearness, 
that a long series of strenuous efforts and laborious 
vigils, not the contagion of the excellencies of wiser and 
more accomplished persons among whom his lot may 
be cast, is requisite to make him feel himself, — not the 
superior, — but the equal of those whom the conditions 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



351 



of a liberal education place about him as his rivals 
and fellow-students. 

But passing over these possible follies of youth, 
which, if ever they occur, the sobering influences of 
age and of action must soon expel, let us look at 
our own position and duties ; — at the claims of this our 
fostering Mother, beneath whose sheltering wing we 
live. For assuredly she has claims and we have duties. 
We are not here that we may live for ourselves alone. 
We may not persuade ourselves that we have nought 
to do but to repose and to enjoy; — that our sole 
business with the concerns of this our abode is to cull 
from them what may best minister to our comfort and 
caprice. And we, especially, who are not, like the 
rest, transient sojourners here, but are connected with 
this our home by closer and more lasting ties, and 
have made it our fixed habitation ; we may not forget 
that this body looks, and has a right to look, for such 
labours, such a spirit, such a regulation of our conduct, 
as may enable it to answer the ends of its institution, 
not for our time only, but from age to age. We are 
not permitted to consider ourselves as those whose 
task is finished ; whose labours are over ; who, in their 
season, with strong arm and sharp sickle, have reaped 
the harvest, and may now sleep upon the sheaves. To 
none among men is such a lot assigned, and least of 
all to us. All have an allotted sphere of duty, which 
includes the regulation of their internal affections, as 
well as of their outward deeds. This our Family claims 
from us our service, not in formal acts only, but a 



352 



SERMON XXI. 



ready and habitual devotion of our thoughts to its 
interests ; — a willing regard, ever watchful to discover 
how its aims may be furthered, its spirit sustained, its 
perils averted. It is our business to exclude and re- 
press, as far as may be, even all semblance of evil ; — all 
wickedness and temptation, waste and excess, reckless- 
ness and riot. It belongs to us, to all of us, to exercise 
a mild but unrelaxing superintendence, which may 
sober and restrain the levity of the thoughtless. If 
we refuse to do this, — if we indolently or weakly neg- 
lect the functions which our position assigns to us, — 
we unavoidably erect the caprice and self-will of others 
into masters over us; and, abdicating an authority, 
willingly acknowledged because obviously just and 
salutary, we encourage assumptions the most wanton 
and foolish, the most inconsistent with the constitu- 
tion of a place of instruction and discipline. For such 
objects it becomes us to be ready with our exertions, 
and, if need be, with our sacrifices. Above all it is fit 
for us to be ready with our small sacrifices ; for, these 
duly paid, the larger will seldom be needful. It is for 
us, by mutual kindness and forbearance, by such 
habits of intercourse as become members of the same 
family, by bearing each other's burthens, by sympathiz- 
ing with each other's joys and sorrows, to inspire a 
mutual confidence with regard to small matters as well 
as great, and thus to diffuse a social sunshine through 
the atmosphere of our courts and halls. 

While I say these things, I know that I only ex- 
press the habitual conviction of those who hear me ; 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



353 



and that the only fear is, lest I should seem to be 
asserting that which no one doubts, and urging that 
which is already present to all your minds. But with 
the feelings which here prevail among us, how can he 
whose task it is, on such a day as this, to exhort you, 
hope to find any train of thought which shall possess 
the grace of novelty. When we, on such an occasion, 
speak of the glories of this our home, we suppose not, 
in so doing, that any of its children have forgotten its 
splendours : and when on the like occasion we dwell 
upon our duties, just as little do we admit the thought 
that any are unmindful of those, or careless in their 
fulfilment. But how can we more profitably employ 
the opportunity thus put in our hands, than by im- 
pressing upon our own mind and upon yours those 
great maxims of our conduct with regard to our 
Society, upon which its welfare and credit essentially 
depend, and which can never be too deeply engraven 
in our breasts or too constantly present to our thoughts. 

But while we thus make this day the occasion of 
calling to mind the principles by which we may best 
guide our conduct in smaller matters, let us not neglect 
to turn our attention to a wider field ; — to considera- 
tions which do not affect merely the details and the 
temper of our intercourse with each other, but the 
great purposes of our institution, and the offices which 
we have to discharge in the social system of our coun- 
try. What are those purposes? In one word, our 
office is Education : but to distinguish that form of 
instruction which is our peculiar concern, from the 
w. c. s. A A 



354 



SERMON XXI. 



various other modes in which, in various conditions 
and circumstances, the youth of this country are 
trained, we term ours peculiarly and emphatically a 
Liberal Education. And what is the leading charac- 
ter of the idea which we thus endeavour to convey ? 
Various, perhaps, in various minds, and vague, it may 
be, at best, still this, I think, all will feel to be im- 
plied in the phrase ; — that those who are partakers of 
such an education are to be made to participate in the 
influence of all the developement and progress, the 
refinement and enlargement, to which the human 
mind, in its happiest and most favoured seasons, has 
attained. It is not because any one is profoundly 
versed in the records of ancient learning, or because 
he is familiar with the discoveries of modern art or 
science, that we deem him liberally educated. It is 
because he knows, of ancient literature, that which 
enables him to understand and to sympathize with 
those noble efforts of thought and imagination, by 
which Greece and Rome became, and have continued 
up to the present day, the mistresses and models of 
the civilized word : and again, because he has accom- 
panied the course of those more recent triumphs of a 
severer intellectual power, in virtue of which the last 
two centuries must for all future ages continue to be 
the leaders and teachers of all nations in the know- 
ledge of material nature. A liberal education is that 
which, so far as the progress of taste and thought and 
real knowledge are concerned, connects the past with 
the present and the future. And those who enjoy the 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



355 



inestimable advantages of such an education are the 
instruments, graced and honoured by their office, as 
well as by their possessions, of diffusing through the 
present race of men, and transmitting to the next 
generation, all the best consequences of the intellec- 
tual exertions of man, from the first dawn of letters 
up to the present time. Happy and privileged beings ! 
For them the historian reflected and laboured, and 
delivered to posterity an imperishable treasure. For 
them the poet breathed sweet strains and lofty 
thoughts into his undying verse. For them the ma- 
thematician bent over his diagram while the storm 
of war thundered unheeded at his door. For them 
the astronomer has outwatcht the Bear, on the plains 
of Chaldea, or in the palaces of Europe. All this 
has been done, that they may learn, — not- without 
labour and exertion indeed, but with a labour and 
exertion, how small compared with the value of its 
results! — that they may learn, what noble faculties 
man possesses, of what exaltation his thought is 
capable, what pleasures of the mind his bountiful 
Creator has provided for him, what boundless pro- 
spects he has thrown open to his gaze. This he 
learns: and having learnt this, he cannot but feel 
that it is his business to take care that this precious 
inheritance be not, by his fault, lost or damaged. 
The past is our benefactor, to which we can render 
no return : but how can we help wishing to repay 
to the future the vast debt we have incurred ? How 
can we avoid attempting to extend blessings which 



356 



SERMON XXI. 



we so highly value ? The torch which was lighted in 
early Greece, has been passed from hand to hand till it 
is placed in our grasp : shall we arrest its progress, or 
hide it in the shade ; and not rather trim its flame, 
and hand it on rejoicing to those who come after us? 

The whole of the past is our teacher; and it is 
our proper business to transmit its lore to the future, 
augmented by the best lessons which the present can 
add. The literature of the ancient world has been 
the means of enlarging and refining men's minds up to 
the modern times. The science of the modern world 
will be one of the great means of still further ex- 
panding men's thoughts and unfolding their intellects. 
As surely as we owe our mental cultivation to Ho- 
mer and Sophocles, Plato and Cicero, so surely will 
future ages have their minds directed and animated 
by those vast and penetrating views of nature which 
have been opened to them by those whose images 
now stand near us, and whose names are inscribed on 
our walls. As surely as our reason is still sharp- 
ened and methodized by the influence of Socrates and 
Aristotle, so surely must men now seek the highest 
discipline of the reason through an acquaintance with 
the powerful intellectual instruments by which the 
more recent advance of truth has been effected. 

To neglect to make these subjects part of our 
liberal education, — to confine ourselves to the labours 
of the ancient world, — would be to mistake, almost to 
betray, our office. If the Education which we here 
encourage be such as to employ the student among 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



357 



the literature of the past only, and to leave his 
mind uninformed with those processes of rigorous 
reasoning, those vast yet solid generalizations of na- 
tural laws, which form the peculiar acquirements of 
modern times; we shall deserve the reproach which 
is sometimes cast upon us, of employing men's minds 
upon verbal trifling and obsolete speculations; — we 
shall be chargeable with stopping, so far as we are 
concerned, the progress of the human mind. Our 
education will not only be grievously defective in 
what it does not give ; but that which it gives will 
be deprived of its main value ; — will lose its proper 
place and signification, as one of the elements of the 
civilization and intellectual advancement of the hu- 
man family. 

But there is another observation which I must 
make before I conclude. Our Education, as we have 
said, ought to be such as shall connect the past and 
the present with the future ; — as shall be fitted for 
its office in the progressive course to which man is 
by his Maker destined. And there is still one view 
in which this connexion may be considered, far more 
important, and more deeply interesting to us than 
any other. It is this : Our Education ought to be 
such, as shall connect each man's Present with his 
eternal Future ; — as shall prepare him for that ele- 
vation of his nature to which he is, here and here- 
after, called. The same Divine Ruler of man, who 
directs the career of successive generations on earth 
in the pursuit and attainment of beauty and truth, 



358 



SERMON XXI. 



invites us also to aim at a more glorious beauty, a 
holier truth. He places before us, as our highest 
object, that we should seek to draw near to Him, 
and rise towards Him in this life; in order that in 
a future and higher state of being, we may see Him 
as He is, and may find eternal life and joy in His 
presence. This is a progressive aspect of our nature 
which it would be indeed strange if we should for- 
get, when we are considering what the training of 
man ought to be. Our Education would be most 
incomplete, would be far other than truly liberal, if, 
while shaping itself by man's intellectual progress, it 
should forget his spiritual growth : — if, knowing him 
to be destined to another stage of being, it should 
treat him as if he were confined to this : — if, pre- 
paring his mind to respond to the loftiest strains of 
poetry and the sublimest views of science, it should 
never look forwards to the time when he is to learn 
the songs of angels, and to know even as he is 
known. 

No Education can be liberal which is not also 
religious. It may not be necessary that doctrine or 
interpretation in a systematic shape should form a 
part of its scheme ; but the religious nature of man 
must be recognized ; his spiritual hopes and privileges, 
his dangers and his refuge, must not be kept out of 
sight. If these did not exist, how mean and narrow, 
how dark and wretched, would be the human destiny, 
in spite of the progress of art and knowledge and 
thought from age to age ! If these do exist, and yet 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



359 



are never spoken of among us ; — if we never look to 
each other for sympathy in the midst of these glorious 
prospects, these awful perils, these gracious promises; — 
how cold and dull must our hearts be ; or else how 
lamentably must we be bound and chained, checked 
and silenced, by the fetters which we have made for 
ourselves ! If we willingly meet together, and dis- 
course, and teach, on matters of human learning and 
knowledge, but hear and utter no expression of our 
religious hopes and feelings, no word of exhortation 
or sympathy with regard to our eternal concerns; 
how shall we, old or young, retain those subjects in 
our thoughts, with their due force and influence ? 

To this it may be replied, that our daily worship 
does afford the means of our uniting in the common 
expression of the feelings which belong to our religious 
condition. And far be it from us to depreciate the 
value and advantages of that excellent institution of 
daily prayer, by which the members of a Christian 
Family like this, acknowledge their dependence upon 
and trust in their Divine Master. Yet, even pos- 
sessing this, many may feel that something still is 
wanting ;— that to be led by stated ordinances to 
express to each other, and to these our younger bre- 
thren who surround us, the thoughts of Christian 
hope and fear, which, by the help of God's Holy 
Spirit, may arise in our hearts, and which assume a 
clearer shape when we consider ourselves as called 
upon to address others, — might be salutary to all. So 
long as this is not done, it may easily be that many 



860 



SERMON XXI. 



of those who sojourn for a time among us, rarely or 
never hear the word of Christian admonition, which, to 
most minds, gives a greater reality and impressiveness 
to all Christian ordinances. And thus it may come 
to pass, that the heart, though not at first alienated 
from religious thoughts, may become careless and 
callous, stony and dead, to all spiritual concerns. 
If from time to time the voice of the preacher of 
practical piety were heard within these walls on our 
Sabbaths, might not many a bosom swell with reli- 
gious emotions, which are now locked up in the breast 
by the surrounding chill and silence? Might not 
many a warning be uttered and take effect, many a 
virtuous resolution be formed and fulfilled, many a 
soul be turned to the way of salvation ? May we not 
apply here the remainder of the passage which forms 
our text: — "Exhort one another daily while it is 
called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the 
deceitfulness of sin?" In short, forming, as we do, 
a Christian community, united by social worship, 
might not the other ordinances of Christian societies 
be here attended with the same blessings which are 
elsewhere, by means of them, sought ? 

I have uttered this inquiry with no fear that I 
shall therefore be deemed presumptuous by any ; well 
knowing that all of us, those who may approve and 
those who may disapprove of such a suggestion, have 
still deeply at heart the good of this our Sion : and 
that none will doubt that whatever counsel is now 
offered, is given in the spirit of love. We need no 



COLLEGE COMMEMORATION. 



361 



assurances from each other that this our home is 
regarded by us with a strong and steady affection. 
Endeared to all of us as the place where some of our 
most precious mental treasures have been acquired, 
some of our dearest friendships formed; fragrant 
with the recollections of pleasant, and, we trust, of in- 
structive hours ; how can we do other than look upon 
it with pleasure and regard ? We think with joy 
and gratitude upon this scene, where our imagination 
was disciplined, our love of excellence fixed, our views 
of literature and knowledge expanded. But this 
place may have, and we trust to many of us has, a still 
higher claim upon our gratitude and love. It may 
be the place where not only the intellectual but the 
spiritual man has been built up. It may be the 
spot where the thought of our eternal destination 
was awakened in us, or established, or carried into 
practical effect. It may be the place where we have 
not only preferred the exertions and enjoyments of 
the mind to the gratifications of sense and vanity, 
but have lived among heavenly as well as earthly 
thoughts; — where we have secured, not only dear 
and valued friends below, but a most kind and gra- 
cious Friend in heaven ; — where we have not only 
learnt to find, in literary tastes, a refuge from the 
turmoil and care of the world, but have sought also a 
surer refuge from the sin and death which surround 
us, in the satisfaction of Jesus Christ and the promise 
of his Holy Spirit. 

If this be our case, we have indeed double and 



362 



SERMON XXI. 



sevenfold reason to join, with earnestness and grati- 
tude, in the prayers and wishes which all are ready 
to give to the welfare of this our beloved College. 
" pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall pros- 
per that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and 
plenteousness within thy palaces. For my brethren 
and companions' sakes, I have wished thee prosperity. 
Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will 
seek to do thee good*." 

* Ps. cxxii. 6—9. 

Note. — I find that my memory had in some degree misrepre- 
sented the inscription referred to in page 347- It exists at Felton 
in Northumberland, over the entrance of the Vicarage house ; and 
is as follows : 

A. 1683 has sedes posuit Robertus Henderson, Trinitatis Coll. 
Cantab, tempore Barrowii, tempore Newtoni socius; hujus et 
ecclesise non indignus vicarius. Pietatis ergo posuit hoc patri 
filius testimonium. 1758. 



SERMON XXII. 



(1840. October 25.) 

Acts II. 38. 

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one 
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of 
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

X^OU will recollect that the words which I have 
^~ just read were the answer to a question asked, not 
only in great earnestness and solicitude, but also in 
great doubt and perplexity. After the passion, resur- 
rection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, His disciples 
remained together at Jerusalem, believing that He 
was indeed the Son of God and the Saviour of His 
people, but labouring under a feeling of doubt, and 
darkness, and trouble, as to what was to be the 
nature, and when the time, of His salvation. When 
they had seen Him during His short stay upon earth, 
after His resurrection, they had asked Him — " Lord, 
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to 
Israel ;" and His answer had been, " It is not for 
you to know the times or the seasons which the Father 
hath put in His own power * ; " — an answer fitted to 
* Acts i. 6, 7- 



364 



SERMON XXII. 



chill and cloud rather than to enlighten and brighten 
their view of the future ; — an answer, which shed 
no ray of hope or comfort on the mysterious dis- 
pensation in which they found themselves involved. 
And thus, while their question showed how limited 
and poor their own expectations were, of the ob- 
ject of Christ's mission from God, the reply which 
they received left them in cheerless and helpless 
ignorance, as to the fulfilment of even those expec- 
tations. They were, as I have already said, in a 
condition of doubt and perplexity. And even when 
that Holy Spirit came down by whom that in them 
which was dark was to be illuminated, and that which 
was low to be raised and supported, they did not 
at once recover from their dejection and confusion 
of mind. In the narrative which the previous part 
of the chapter before us, gives us, after the account 
of the descent of the Holy Ghost in a visible form 
with miraculous effects, it is added, that " they were 
all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, 
What meaneth this ? while others mocking said, These 
men are full of new wine*." It was amid these won- 
derings and questionings, amid these doubts and fears, 
amid these debates and taunts, that " Peter standing 
up, lifted up his voice f," and addressed them in a 
discourse, which overbore all their doubts, and put 
an end to their disputations, and mastered their con- 
viction, and roused their consciences. Then it was, 
that " they were pricked in their heart, and said unto 

* Acts ii. 12, 13. t Acts ii. 14. 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



365 



Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and breth- 
ren, what shall we do*?" And then it was that Peter 
answered in the words of the text, " Repent, and be 
baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord 
Jesus for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 
the Holy Ghost." 

To lead men to repent, to estimate justly their 
admission into Christ's flock by Baptism, to look 
to God for the gift of the Holy Ghost to support 
and sanctify them ; — to induce and animate men to 
aspire, by these means, to become the children of 
God for time and for eternity ; — this was what Peter 
had to effect, among men labouring with misgivings, 
and blinded by ignorance. Yet his endeavour was 
not fruitless ; his appeal was not without response. 
" Many gladly received his word and were baptized ; 
and continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine 
and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in 
prayer f." A change was produced in these hearers. 
They were " turned from darkness to light : — from 
the power of Satan to the power of God J." And 
this change was not a momentary or temporary one 
only. The course of their conduct was stedfastly 
conformed to the new profession which they had 
made, to the new and blessed influence which they 
had invited. They went on leading lives of purity 
and charity, having intercourse with each other by 
constant good offices, temporal and spiritual, and 
intercourse with God by prayer. Having accepted 

* Acts ii. 37. t Acts ii. 41, 42. + Acts xxvi. 18. 



366 



SERMON XXII. 



the name of Christ they became His servants and 
followers indeed. 

What was Peter's office is ours. Repentance, 
sanctification, eternal happiness; — these, too, are our 
constant, our inevitable themes. To urge men to 
become children of God and heirs of everlasting life, 
is the business of every Christian minister, the duty 
of every Christian friend. This is our business, our 
duty, our desire, our pleasure with regard to you. 
This is what we would now, and at all times, earnestly 
and perseveringly endeavour to do. We would ex- 
hort you, as Peter exhorted his hearers, to repent 
of your sins, to seek remission of them in Jesus 
Christ, and to hope to receive the Holy Ghost. 

And we may, it would seem, enter upon this 
our office with good hope and glad confidence, when 
we compare our condition with that of St. Peter 
and his hearers. For while he had to struggle with 
the doubt and fear, and surprize and offence which 
were occasioned by the unfolding of the true import 
of Christianity, we can assume it as certain that you 
have already become well acquainted with the nature 
and purposes of Christ's coming on earth. It is true, 
we can no longer captivate your belief by miraculous 
evidences of truth ; but we can take for granted 
that you possess a full conviction of those truths 
which were established in Christ's Church by the 
signs and wonders of the Apostolic times. The work 
which miracles had to do, is done. The doubts and 
difficulties and ignorance which prevailed among the 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



367 



hearers of St. Peter were removed by his ministry 
and that of the other Apostles ; removed, not for that 
congregation and for that time only, but for all the 
members of Christ's Church in all ages. Although 
the object of our exhortations now is the same as 
was that of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, the 
state of preparation which our addresses imply, may 
be very different from that which his words denote. 
He enjoins every one of them to be baptized in the 
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins : 
but we remind you that you have every one of you 
been so baptized. We may assume the privilege of 
recalling to your recollection, that dear and affec- 
tionate friends, with their hearts full of tender love 
and Christian hope, have stood by you, while you 
were solemnly presented and accepted as members 
of Christ's Church ; and that " hearty thanks " have 
been rendered to God, through the mouth of His 
minister, that you have thus been adopted and incor- 
porated Probably, too, we may remind you that, 
still more recently, you have, in the presence of 
God and of His congregation, declared that you 
" renewed the solemn promise and vow made in your 
name in your Baptism ; ratifying and confirming the 
same in your own persons, and acknowledging your- 
selves bound to believe and to do all those things 
which were at that early period undertaken for you f ." 
We may assume, too, that you know, and are well 

* Service for Publick Baptism of Infants, 
t Service for Confirmation. 



368 



SERMON XXII. 



assured, that the remission of sins is to be obtained 
solely through Jesus Christ : that " there is no other 
name under heaven by which men can be saved*" 
than His; and that the only mode in which each of 
us can purify his nature from the gross blots and 
defilements of sin, is by placing his confidence in 
the propitiation and atonement of his Lord and 
Saviour. Again, we may assume that instead of 
being, as St. Peter's hearers were, amazed and bewil- 
dered at the appearance of the Divine Comforter, 
you have learnt to consider Him as constantly pre- 
sent in His Church, and ever brooding over it with 
His care and protection ; extending His aid to each 
individual member of that Church, who seeks Him 
by prayer and meditation ; suggesting and confirm- 
ing all good intentions, and strengthening every 
resistance against the temptations of the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. All such views are, we may 
suppose, old and familiar in your minds. They have 
been impressed upon you in a thousand ways : — by 
prayers uttered beside a mother's knee ; by paternal 
admonition; by sacred ordinances regularly recurring; 
by books of study and of amusement ; and still more, 
we gladly hope, by your own thoughts, and studies, 
and prayers; by the examination of the Scriptures, 
by the conversation of dear Christian friends. You 
who are here have not now to go through any emo- 
tions of surprize and perplexity, when you are 
addressed as St. Peter addressed his hearers. 



* Acts iv. 12. 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



360 



Privileged as the preacher of our day is, to sup- 
pose this of his congregation, it might naturally be 
imagined that he appeals to them under more favour- 
able circumstances than was the case in that earlier 
time : we may conceive, as I have said, that he has 
reason to set about his task of exhortation with hope 
and joy; secure of finding prepared minds and sym- 
pathising hearts in those who listen to his words. 
We may suppose, it would seem, that their assent 
to his views in general is ready ; that their convic- 
tion only waits for his asking; that he has only to 
concentrate this somewhat vague feeling, in order to 
obtain a great practical effect ; — that he may fix the 
attention of his hearers upon some one sin to which 
they are prone, or some good practice which they 
have it in their power to adopt ; and applying to 
this selected point those general principles and max- 
ims about which they are all agreed, the preacher 
of these late times, will be sure, we might perhaps 
think, to carry his audience with him ; to inflame 
them with a hatred of sin; to inspire them with a 
love of good; to lead them to make a solemn reso- 
lution that henceforth temptation shall have no power 
over them, — lukewarmness towards what is right 
and good, no place in their breasts. If a congregation 
of well-instructed and solemnly professed Christians, 
be less likely than the assembly of disciples on the 
day of Pentecost to be suddenly and unexpectedly 
driven to cry out, 6 What ought we to do ?' they will 
at least, we may allow ourselves to imagine, be 

W. C. S. B B 



370 



SERMON XXII. 



attentive to the answer; and since their faith is 
settled, and their knowledge clear, they will easily 
be induced to continue stedfast in that course of life 
which the religious teacher prescribes. 

My brethren, is this so? Is it so easy for the 
preacher to make a deep and lasting impression upon 
his hearers in these our days ? Is it now a light 
matter to make men cast off their sins, and live 
worthily of their calling? Have we gained in the 
efficacy of our teaching, now that we no longer ad- 
dress men full of doubt, fear, and perplexity about 
the very fundamental truths of Christianity? Now 
that the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy 
Ghost are well known to you, speculatively at least, 
are you much more advanced than Peters hearers 
were towards the real enjoyment of those blessings, 
to which God Himself invites you? Is it a matter 
which costs little trouble, to induce you to "continue 
stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, 
and in breaking of bread and in prayer ?" Ye know 
these things; ye have long and familiarly known 
them ; does it require only an occasional admoni- 
tion from us to lead you also to do them ? You know 
St. Peter's exhortation which we have before us ; — 
do you prepare instantly and earnestly to put in prac- 
tice the concluding injunction, " Save yourselves from 
this untoward generation * ?" 

No, my brethren; we know well what your answer 
must be. You are not more attentive to the com- 

* Acts ii. 40. 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



371 



mands of Christ than the disciples of the earliest 
times, in proportion to your greater knowledge of 
the doctrine and dispensation of Christ. You do 
not give your hearts to the preacher more willingly 
and more cordially, because you are already con- 
vinced respecting the fundamental truths on which 
he takes his stand. That you have been baptized 
into the Church of Christ, that you have taken upon 
yourselves your baptismal vows, that you know well 
all the leading doctrines of Christianity, and give 
your assent to them, — this does not make your hearts 
respond readily to every appeal which the preacher 
makes to you; it does not cause you to be, under 
the influence of his exhortation, ready and earnest 
in framing good resolves ; still less does it render you 
firm and strong in pursuing the path of purity and 
duty through all the obstructions by which it is beset. 

On the contrary, the very familiarity which you 
possess with Christian truths, makes them fall upon 
your ears without seriously impressing your minds. 
It is exactly because you know so well the doctrines 
of religion in words, that it is so difficult to touch 
you with their spirit. You feel as if you already 
knew all that the preacher has to say, and therefore 
it is, that it moves you little when it is uttered. 
You ask with no anxiety, ' What must we do V for 
you imagine that you know already the answer which 
you must receive. It is difficult to move you to form 
resolves, for you know that no resolves can be 
stronger than that vow under which you already are, 

BB2 



372 



SERMON XXII. 



to abstain from evil, namely, the vow of your Chris- 
tian profession, — the declaration made for you when 
you were signed " with the sign of the Cross," that 
you should "not be ashamed to confess the faith of 
Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His 
banner, against sin, the world and the devil, and 
to continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto 
your life's end*." 

If all this have been in vain, how shall we hope 
to move you? If such bonds have had no power 
to bind you to the sincere and consistent service of 
your God, what ties can we hope to knit for you 
that will not be as straws? If such solemn vows 
have been scattered to the winds, how shall we 
gather them back from the air, and weave them again 
into words of greater potency? If you have given 
over asking what you shall do, because you will not 
heed the answer, how vain in us to ask the question 
for you ! If you have ceased to refer to, or to renew 
from time to time your resolutions of giving your- 
selves to God and to His will, because you are weary 
of violating such resolutions, how unprofitable is it 
for us to tell you that this is a season when such 
resolutions may be made by you with the hope of 
advantage and blessing. 

But we deem not so. We hope of you better 
things. We gladly allow ourselves to imagine that, 
though you may have been from time to time, weak, 
passionate, irresolute, lukewarm ; and may thus have 

* Service for Publick Baptism of Infants. 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



373 



deviated from your Christian duty, and for a time 
alienated yourselves from God; that you have never 
ceased to consider Him as your Master, His will as 
your guide, His promises as your support, His Pre- 
sence as your final home. We willingly believe that 
you have frequently referred to the obligations under 
which your Christian profession places you ; solemnly 
renewed your resolutions not to violate these in 
future ; and that you own that it is not useless, from 
time to time to add strength and impressiveness to 
such resolutions, by entwining them with the livelier 
feelings and peculiar emotions which belong to the 
most marked periods of our lives ; — by connecting 
them with the epochs which separate our earthly 
span of time into its principal portions. 

Supposing, then, that you acknowledge such a 
practice to be a salutary aid to self-guidance, I would 
invite you to consider the present occasion as one 
on which we are especially called upon to make the 
most solemn resolutions, that we will do nothing 
inconsistent with our Christian calling ; addressing 
our prayers to Almighty God that such a resolu- 
tion now made, He will enable us to keep hereafter. 
For to many of us the present time is really a most 
important epoch in our lives. Many of us now ap- 
pear in our present situation for the first, or nearly 
for the last time. We are commencing, or we are 
closing some definite stage of our earthly career. 
And even those of you who are in the middle of 
that brief period which is the usual sojourn of youth 



374 



SERMON XXII. 



among us, may well sympathize with any reflections 
suited to the beginning of your course here, which 
is so lately past, or to the end, which will arrive 
so soon. 

I turn myself, then, in the first place, to those 
who are now among us for the first time ;— to those 
who are just entering upon that course of instruc- 
tion and discipline which we are set here to ad- 
minister. And first, my young friends, we bid you 
most heartily welcome and God speed ! We receive 
you as brothers, willingly believing and hoping of 
you all that is good; — believing that you come to 
us with that preparation of which I have spoken, 
an habitual acquaintance with the doctrines and pro- 
mises, and supports of the religion of Christ ; and 
hoping that in all these respects, you will carry a\vay 
from among us more than you bring. But with re- 
gard to the point which is brought before us by the 
train of reflection which we have been pursuing, — 
the resolutions which you are called upon to form, 
with regard to your conduct in the field on which 
you are now entering, — this short injunction includes 
almost all which needs to be said, — Be serious ; be 
in earnest. Do not allow yourselves for a moment 
to believe that the business of the next year, or of 
the next few years, so far as regards your moral and 
spiritual progress and welfare, is a slight matter. Do 
not admit the imagination, thagf now — when a career 
of freer and more independent action is opening 
upon you, than that in which you may have hitherto 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



375 



moved, — that now you may trifle and err for a time ; 
and trust to some unseen contingencies of the future, 
to bring you home again to what is reasonable and 
right. Far, very far other than this, is the only wise, 
and rational, and Christian view of your condition. 
Such as you now make yourselves, — such as you in 
the next few months become, by the resolutions you 
form, and the conduct you pursue, — such will you 
be. You have no time to lose, no strength to spare. 
When in the space of a very few years you leave us, 
you ought to leave us as men whose principles are 
settled, and their habits of action formed. When 
you go hence, it ought to be not as persons stumbling 
in the dark, and still seeking for guidance and sup- 
port. By the time your course among us is com- 
pleted, devotion, and purity, and uprightness, and 
charity, ought to have become, no longer efforts, but 
habits, And so, by self-watchfulness, and discipline, 
and soberness, and prayer, they may become. But if 
you occupy the time and abuse the liberty of your 
position by inflaming, instead of subduing, your pas- 
sions, — by unsettling, instead of confirming, your 
rules of conduct, — by fostering your worse, and re- 
pressing your better impulses, — by turning aside from 
the whispers of duty and religion, and listening only 
to the seductive voices of pleasure and amusement, — 
sad indeed for you, in time and in eternity, is the hour 
that brings you here. Deep to us is the mortification 
and regret, but far deeper to you the ruin and the 
woe. Do not deceive yourselves. Listen to us when 



376 



SERMON XXII. 



we labour to preserve you from deceit. All the time 
that is given you or us, is full little enough, to enable 
you to form those habits of virtue and self-control, 
of the subordination of your passions to the rule 
of duty and the will of God, in which alone your 
happiness consists ; in which alone you can find any 
solid satisfaction ; by which alone your character can 
be so purified and elevated as to give you any 
prospect of overcoming the evil of our nature ; — of 
approaching to Him here, and living in His blessed 
Presence hereafter. 

Let us not, then, speak in vain, when we entreat 
you, that this service, which now brings us together, 
may be the occasion of your renewing and confirm- 
ing the vows and resolutions which your place, as 
accountable creatures, and as Christians, imposes upon 
you. Let us indulge ourselves in the hope and trust 
that you are resolved henceforth to seek all good and 
resist all evil ; — to be followers of God as dear chil- 
dren * ; — to avoid all those things " which war against 
the soulf;" — to show your reverence for the law of 
duty, and your power of making it your guide, by a 
careful and willing discharge of all those duties which 
your position here imposes upon you; — to bring 
to your work here a spirit of cheerful docility, of 
filial goodwill and confidence, in addition to a love 
of all that is excellent and beautiful in the world 
of thought and imagination ; such as we readily be- 
lieve to have been, and to be, the constant impulse 

* Ephes. v. 1. t 1 Peter ii. 11. 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



377 



and unfading source of your pleasure in your studies. 
" Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and 
hope to the end*-." 

A few words more, and I have done. Many re- 
flections suggest themselves, which might be offered 
to those who are now approaching the close of their 
career ; but, for the present, it must suffice to remind 
them, that what has been said to others, applies no 
less to them also. We trust that the time which 
you have spent here has been employed not idly 
and unprofitably, as regards your intellectual pro- 
gress; but still more, that it has been to you a 
season of moral and spiritual advancement. We trust 
that it has been employed, not in making yourselves 
the slaves of appetites and passions, of which the 
tyranny, fostered or submitted to in youth, may 
become the torment and the disgrace of your riper 
years, and your eternal ruin ; but that you have 
learned to see how all our powers and impulses, 
intellect and passion, the affections and necessities 
of our human condition, are instruments in the hands 
of our Divine Master, to guide us in the way that 
He has appointed for us ; — to teach us, so that we 
may become truly His disciples; — to discipline and 
exalt us, so that we may, notwithstanding the inhe- 
rent imperfection and pollution of our being, become 
fit subjects of His eternal kingdom. And trusting 
that this is so, we doubt not that you also will aid 
us, so far as the opportunity may present itself, in 

* 1 Peter i. 13. 



378 



SERMON XXII. 



impressing upon those whose experience is less than 
your own, the necessity of these great truths. And 
if, now that your career here draws to its end, you 
perceive that you have not gone through it with due 
seriousness of mind ; — if that liberty which is here 
appointed to you, that it may be the nurse of self- 
guidance and self-knowledge, has been abused by you 
to foster a spirit of reckless levity and self-opinion 
and self-will, — recollect that now is the time to re- 
solve to pluck up these weeds of your unripe season. 
The time past of your lives, may suffice you to have 
indulged in such things. Look more truly upon your 
position. See your life before you as it is; — not a 
succession of opportunities of pleasure, nor of subjects 
for idle merriment or self-complacent scorn; but a 
grave and solemn series of duties, in which your most 
earnest care may be requisite, in order to choose 
the right, your most strenuous efforts, in order to 
pursue it. Collect from your intercourse with us, 
from the studies you have pursued, from the friend- 
ships you have formed, from the reflections you have 
made, from the characters you have here seen, all 
that can aid you in this task ; and may God prosper 
to you what you thus gather, so that the nourishment 
and support to your better part, which you have 
here received, may be precious to you, and may 
never depart from you! 

Finally, to all of you, in whatever position, at 
whatever point of your career you stand, I will say, 
May you so gather about you, while you are here, 



THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 



379 



all the good influences which this place contains, — so 
use them, and so profit by them, — so find in them 
the evidence of God's favour and the promise of His 
aid in your aspirations after a better state of being, — 
that you may depart from among us, when you do 
depart, carrying our blessing with you, and leaving 
upon us your blessing, to support and cheer us in 
the continuance of our labours ! 



NOTES TO THE PRECEDING SERMONS. 



SERMON IX. p. 144. 



IHE well-known concluding lines of Cowper's Task are here 



referred to : 

'Tis not in artful measures, in the chime 
And idle tinklings of a minstrel's lyre 
To charm His ear, whose eye is on the heart, 
Whose frown can disappoint the proudest strain, 
Whose approbation prosper even mine. 



Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., late Master of the College, 
was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, on the 9th of June, 1774, 
and died at Buxted (of which place he was Rector) on the 2nd of 
February, 1846. 

The following is the manner in which Dr. Wordsworth is spoken 
of in the " Commemoration of Benefactors," which is every year read 
in the College Chapel after the Commemoration Sermon : 

" The Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., and Master of the 
College from 1820 to 1841 gave in his life-time the sum of £500 to 
be appropriated to the Pigott Fund : and to his zealous exertions, 
seconded by a corresponding liberality in many kind friends of the 
College, we are mainly indebted for the erection of a New Court in 
the College, and also for the institution of our Yicarage and Doraus 
Fund connected therewith." 

The New Court was first inhabited in 1824. 

Dr. Wordsworth was a liberal contributor to various Associ- 
ations for religious purposes. He had also a principal share in the 
establishment of the Classical Tripos which was adopted by the 
University in 1822. 




SERMON XIY. p. 225. 



382 



NOTES. 



SERMON XVII. p. 282. 
The following Sonnet of Mr. Wordsworth is here referred to : 

There is a bondage worse, far worse, to bear 
Than his who breathes, by roof and floor and wall 
Pent in, a Tyrant's solitary Thrall ; 
'Tis his who walks about in the open air, 
One of a nation who henceforth must wear 
Their fetters on their souls. For who could be — 
Who, even the best, in such condition free 
From self-reproach — reproach that he must share 
With Human-nature? Never be it ours 
To see the sun how brightly it will shine 
And know that noble feelings, manly powers, 
Instead of gathering strength, must droop and pine, 
And earth with all her pleasant fruits and flowers 
Fade and participate in man's decline. 

SERMON XIX. p. 320. 

Reference is made to Pope's Epigram : 

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, 
The greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind. 
There has recently been placed in the Ante-chapel of the College 
a Statue of Bacon by Mr. Weekes, which is an imitation of the 
well-known monumental Statue on his tomb at St. Albans. The 
inscription also is copied on the front of the pedestal. 

Fbanciscus Bacon Baro de Verulam 
Sancti Albani Vicecomes 
Seu notioribus Titulis 
Scientiarum Lumen Fecundiae Lex 
Sic sedebat 
Qui postquam omnia naturalis sapientiae 
et civilis arcana evolvisset 
Naturae decretum explevit 
Composita solvantur. 
An°. Dni. mdcxxvi. JEt. lxvi. 

SERMON XX. p. 328. 

1. John Ray was born at Black Notley near Braintree in 
Essex, November 29, 1628. In 1644 he was sent to Catharine 
Hall, Cambridge, and in 1646 removed thence to Trinity College. 



NOTES. 



383 



In September 1649 he was chosen Fellow, along with Isaac Barrow. 
In 1651 he was Greek Lecturer of the College, in 1653 Mathema- 
tical Lecturer, in 1655 Humanity-reader; in 1657 Head Lecturer. 
He was Junior Dean in 1658, and College Steward in 1659 and 
1660. His works on Natural History are numerous : the book 
to which reference is made in the discourse is " The Wisdom of God 
manifested in the works of the Creation, being the substance of 
some Common Places delivered in the Chapel of Trinity College. 
By John Ray, M.A. Sometime Fellow of that and now of the 
Royal Society." London 1691. This work obtained a popularity 
and circulation which are not yet worn out, and is considered to 
have been the basis of more modern treatises on Natural Theology. 

The commemoration of his birth was celebrated in London, 
Nov. 29, 1828, by a meeting of about 130 well-wishers to Natural 
History, assembled for that purpose. 

Since that time a " Ray Society" has been established, the 
principal purpose of which is to publish works on subjects of 
Natural History. Also at Cambridge a "Ray Club" has been 
formed, consisting of persons who meet periodically for the sake 
of conversation on matters belonging to Natural History. 

Ray was buried at Black Notley, the place of his birth. His 
epitaph has often been referred to. The following is a part of it : 
Sicut alter Solomon (cui forsan unico secundus) 
A cedro ad hyssopunx, 
Ab animalium maximis ad minima usque insecta, 
Exquisitam nactus est notitiam. 

2. Isaac Barrow was born in London in October 1 630. He 
became pensioner of Trinity College in 1645 and scholar 1647- He 
was elected Fellow in 1649 and continued so till 1672, when he 
became Master. He died in London in 1677, and was buried in 
Westminster Abbey. 

3. Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire 
on Christmas-day 0. S 1642. He was admitted of Trinity College 
June 5, 1660. In 1664 he was elected scholar, and 1667, Fellow. 
From this period he resided in the College ; and with so little inter- 
ruption that the whole duration of the times of his absence from 
1668 to 1688, as collected from the records of the College, did not 
amount to much more than four weeks for each year upon an average. 
In 1688 and 9 he was in the Convention Parliament, as the Repre- 
sentative of the University ; and during this period he did not 



384 



NOTES. 



reside in College more than half the year. From 1690 to 1696 his 
residence was resumed with little more interruption than before. 
He then became "Warden and afterwards Master of the Mint, and 
resided from that time principally in London. He died May 20, 
1727, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

He is said to have invented the Method of Fluxions in 1665. 
His Theory of Light appeared in the Philosophical Transactions 
in 1672. But in the Library of Trinity College is a MS. of Cotes 
containing Newton's lectures on this subject, the first of which is 
dated Jan. 1, 1669. In 1676 or the beginning of 1677 he suc- 
ceeded in proving that a body would be retained in an elliptical 
orbit by a force tending to the focus, and varying inversely as the 
square of the distance. His demonstration of some proportions on 
this subject was entered in the register of the Royal Society in 
1683. This circumstance is noticed in a letter of his to Mr. Aston*, 
then Secretary of the Society, dated Feb. 23, 1684-5. The Principia 
was published in 1687« 

4. Roger Cotes was born July 10, 1682, at Burbage in 
Leicestershire, and was admitted of Trinity College April 6, 1699. 
He was elected Fellow Oct. 1, 1705. He died June 5, 1716, aged 
33, and was buried in the Chapel of Trinity College. His epitaph, 
from the pen of Bentley, shews the manner in which both he and 
Newton were looked upon at the time. 

Post magnum ilium Newtonum 
Societatis hujus spes altera 
Et Decus gemellum. 

5. Richard Bentley was bora Jan. 27, 1661-2 at Oulton in 
Yorkshire. He was admitted of St John's College, May 24, 1676. 
In 1691-2 he preached the first Boyle's Lectures, and used this 
opportunity to bring into general notice, and to employ on the side 
of religion, the views which had been published in Newton's Prin- 
cipia four years before. In 1700 he became Master of Trinity Col- 
lege. His critical labours after this period, including those on 
Aristophanes, Menander, Horace, &c. were given to the world at 
various intervals of time. His Remarks on Free-thinking in 1713. 

* In this letter Newton mentions a design in which he had been 
engaged with others, of erecting a Philosophical Society at Cambridge. 
" But that/' says he, " which chiefly dashed the business, was the want 
of persons willing to try experiments." Biog. Brit. Vol. v. p. 3225 



NOTES. 



385 



His edition of Terence and Pha?drus was published in 1726. He 
died July 14, 1742, and was buried in Trinity College Chapel. 

6. The translation of the Bible now used was made by direction 
of King James I. by 47 learned men, most of them selected from 
the two Universities. They were divided into six Companies, two of 
which met at Cambridge, two at Oxford, and two at Westminster. 

I have not mentioned among our share of the translators Dr. 
John Richardson, since he did not become Master of the College till 
1615. He was one of the second Division of the Translators, which 
sat at Cambridge. 

Edvv t ard Lively was elected Fellow in 1571- He was pre- 
sident of the second Division of the Translators, which sat at Cam- 
bridge. He died in 1605 aged nearly 60 ; having been Professor 
of Hebrew 30 years. Mr. Todd, in his Life of Walton, has quoted 
a funeral sermon preached at St. Mary's, Cambridge, on the occasion 
of Professor Lively's death, by Dr. Playfere. " This our dear bro- 
ther, Mr. Edward Lively," says the preacher ' ; who now resteth 
in the Lord, led a life which in a manner was nothing else but a 
continual flood of water. Never out of suits of law, never-ceasing 
disquieters of his studie. His goods distrained, and his cattle driven 
orY his ground, as Job's was. His dear wife not being so well 
able to bear so great a flood as he, even for verie sorrow presently 
died." In speaking of the translators he says, " Though they be the 
verie flow^er of the universitie for knowledge of the tongues, yet 
they will not be ashamed to confesse, that no one man of their 
companie, if not by other respects, yet at leastwise for long expe- 
rience and exercise in this kind, was to be compared with him." 
He died of a quinsey. " During the short time of his sickness he 
carried himself, as alwaies before, humbly, quietly, constantly." 

7« Jeremiah Radcliffe, D.D. He was elected Fellow in 
1572. In 1575 and 6 he was one of the Prselectores : 1579, Greek 
Lecturer : 1582 Junior Dean : 1585, Head-lecturer : 1586, Senior 
Dean: 1587, Senior Bursar: 1597> Vice-Master, in which office he 
continued till 1611. He was rector of Orwell, near Cambridge, and 
his tomb stills remains in the church of that place w T ith the follow- 
ing epitaph, dated 1623. 

Pastor eram dum pastor erarn tunc fistula dulcis 

Nunc tuba qua torvum sprevit ovile lupum 
Sic ductans teneros fidus cu matribus agnos 
Edocui juvenes admonuique senes. 

w. c. s. C c 



386 



NOTES. 



8. Thomas Harrison, B.D. was elected Fellow in 1581. In 
1583 he was one of the Praslectores : 1588, Greek Lecturer : 1592, 
he became one of the Seniors: in 1593, Senior Dean: in 1594, 
Head-lecturer. In 1611 he succeeded Dr. Radcliffe as Vice-Master, 
which office he held till 1630. He was employed by the Univer- 
sity to examine those who were candidates for the Professorships of 
Greek and Hebrew, and was author of a work entitled Lexicon 
Pentaglotton. He was in the second Division of the Translators, 
which sat at Cambridge. 

9. JonN Layfield, D.D. was elected Fellow in 1588: 1593, 
Greek Lecturer : 1600, Head-lecturer : 1601, Greecse Grammatices 
Praelector. He was in the first Division of the Translators, (at West- 
minster.) 

10. William Dakins was elected Minor Fellow in 1593, and 
Major Fellow in 1595. In 1596 he was one of the Prselectores. He 
was in the fifth Division of the Translators, (at Westminster.) 

11. John Overall was elected Minor Fellow in 1581. In 
1585 a Praelector; in 1586 Greek Lecturer; 1588, Mathematical 
Lecturer; 1589, Seneschallus (steward); 1591, Junior Dean; 1595, 
Head-lecturer. He was afterwards Master of Catharine Hall, then 
Bishop of Lichfield, and lastly of Norwich. He was the author of 
several works on divinity. He sat in the first Division of the Trans- 
lators at Westminster. 

12. John Dryden was born at Tichmerch, Northamptonshire, 
Aug. 9, 1631. He was elected from Westminster School to a scho- 
larship at Trinity College, May 11, 1650. He took his degree 
of B.A. Jan. 1654, and removed to London in 1657. 

13. Abraham Cowley was born in London, in 1618. He 
was removed from Westminster School to Trinity College in 
1636. He was elected to a Fellowship in 1640, and in 1643 
ejected from it by the Parliament, upon which he retired to Oxford. 
He was afterwards much engaged in the service of the Royal 
Family, and after the Restoration seems to have considered himself 
but ill rewarded for his exertions. The following passages occur in 
" The Complaint :" 

In a deep vision's intellectual scene, 
Beneath a bower for sorrow made 

The uncomfortable shade 
Of the black yew's unlucky green, 



NOTES. 



387 



Mixt with the mourning willow's careful grey, 
Where reverend Cham cuts out his famous way; 
The melancholy Cowley lay: 
And lo ! a muse appear'd to his closed sight 
(The Muses oft in lands of vision play) 
Bodied, array' d, and seen by an internal light. 

She touched him with her harp and raised him from the ground ; 
The shaken strings melodiously resound ; 

Art thou return'd at last, said she, 

To this forsaken place and me? 
Thou prodigal, who didst so loosely waste 
Of all thy youthful years the good estate, 
Art thou returned here to repent too late ? 
And gather husks of learning up at last, 
Now the rich harvest-time of life is past, 

And winter marches on so fast? 

But when I meant t' adopt thee for my son, 
And did as learn'd a portion assign 
As ever any of the mighty nine 

Had to their dearest children done ; 
When I resolv'd to exalt thy anointed name 
Among the spiritual lords of peaceful fame ; 
Thou, changling, thou, bewitch'd with noise and shew, 
Wouldst into courts and cities from me go, 
Wouldst see the world abroad, and have a share 
In all the follies and the tumults there. 

* * * * * 

The Rachel, for which twice seven years and more 
Thou didst with faith and labour serve, 
And didst (if faith and labour can) deserve 

Though she contracted was to thee, 

Giv'n to another who had store 
Of fairer and of richer wives before, 
And not a Leah left, thy recompence to be. 

* * -X- * * 

In the same strain of thought is his " Epistola Dedicatoria 

O chara ante alias, magnorum nomine regum 

Digna Domus ! Trini nomine digna Dei. 
Ah mihi si vestrse reddat bona gaudia sedis, 

Detque Deus docta posse quiete frui ; 



388 



NOTES. 



Qualis eram cum me tranquilla mente sedentem 

Vidisti in ripa, Came serene, tua ; 
Mulcentem audisti puerili flumina cantu; 
Ille quidem immerito, sed tibi gratus erat." 

His talents and learning were much admired during his career 
in the College ; and his friend and biographer Sprat says, " There 
it was that before the twentieth year of his age he laid the design 
of divers of his masculine works that he finished long after." 

It appears by the following entry in the College " Conclusion 
Book," (that is, the Orders concluded by the Master and the eight 
Seniors) that Cowley was restored to his Fellowship by the inter- 
position of King Charles the Second, immediately after the Re- 
storation. The general Rule of the College is, that a Fellow may 
hold his Fellowship seven years after he is Master of Arts without 
taking Holy Orders. 

"Feb. 11, 1660. Whereas we received a Letter from his Majesty, 
dated the last of January, in the behalfe of Mr. Abraham Cowley, 
Fellow of Trinity College, for the continuance of his seven years 
before taking Holy Orders, in regard of his being ejected imme- 
diately after his taking degree of Master of Arts in these trouble- 
some times. We have thought good to record this in the Conclusion 
Book, that it may be considered as a special case, and so his 
Majesty makes it expressly in his Letters, and not to be drawn 
hereafter into example. 

" H. FERNE," 
[master.] 

The views which Cowley entertained of Inductive Science and of 
Bacon's merits appear in several parts of his works. In his verses 
" To the Royal Society" he says, 

Philosophy, the great and only heir 

Of all that human knowledge which hath been 
Unforfeited by man's rebellious sin, 

Hath still been kept in nonage till of late, 

Nor managed or enjoyed his vast estate. 
*.*,-##"* 

Bacon, at last, a mighty man, arose, 

Whom a wise king, and nature, chose 

Lord Chancellor of both their laws, 

And boldly undertook the injured pupil's cause. 



NOTES. 



389 



From these and all long errors of the way 
In which our wandering predecessors went 

And like the old Hebrews many years did stray 
In desarts but of small extent, 

Bacon, like Moses, led us forth at last; 

The barren wilderness he past ; 

Did on the very border stand 

Of the blest promised land, 
And from the mountain top of his exalted wit, 
Saw it himself and shewed us it. 

This piece is followed, in the collection of his works, by " A Pro- 
position for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy." 

In speaking of his final retirement, and the studies with which 
it was occupied, Sprat says, " But his last and principal design, 
was that which ought to be the principal to every wise man ; the 
establishing his mind in the faith he professed. — He had an earnest 
intention of taking a review of the original principles of the Primi- 
tive Church ; believing that every true Christian had no better 
means to settle his spirit, than that which was proposed to Eneas 
and his followers to be the end of their wanderings, Antiquam exqui- 
riu Matrem." 

He died at Chertsey July 28, 1667, and was buried in West- 
minster Abbey. 

14. George Herbert was born at Montgomery Castle, April 3, 
1593. He was removed from Westminster School to Trinity Col- 
lege about 1608: elected Minor Fellow 1613, and Major Fellow 
1615. In 1619 he became Public Orator. The following is his 
reflection on his continued College residence in one of his devotional 
poems : 

Whereas my birth and spirit rather took 

The way that takes the town, 
Thou didst betray me to a lingering book, 

And wrapt me in a gown. 

— Yet, for I threatened oft the siege to raise 

Not simpering all mine age, 
Thou often didst with academic praise 

Melt and dissolve my rage. 



390 



NOTES. 



The following thought, which is characteristic of the Author, 
may have been conceived in the Chapel of the College. It is 
entitled "The Church Floor:"— 

Mark you the floor? the square and speckled stone 
Which looks so firm and strong 

Is Patience; 

And th' other, black and grave, wherewith each one 
Is spotted all along, 

Humility. 

The gentle rising, which on either hand 
Leads to the quire above, 

Is Confidence; 

But the sweet cement which in one sure band 
Ties the whole frame, is love 

And Charity. 



15. Francis Bacon was bora at York House in the Strand, 
Jan. 22, 1560-1. He was entered of Trinity College June 10, 1573; 
and is said to have run through the whole circle of the liberal 
arts as they were then taught, before he was sixteen ; and even at 
that early age to have begun to entertain his opinions of the barren- 
ness of the Aristotelian philosophy, and to conjecture that true 
knowledge must be raised on other foundations. His book " Of 
the Advancement of Learning," containing a survey of the existing 
condition of human knowledge, was published in 1605. But the 
" Novum Organon," or indication of the true method of interpreting 
nature, did not appear till 1620, when it formed the second part 
of the Instauratio Magna, of which the Advancement was the 
first. This is the opening of the Instauratio : 

Franciscus de Verulamio 
Sic cogitavit, 
Talemque apud se rationem instituit : 
Quam viventibus et posteris notam fieri 

Ipsorum interesse putavit. 

The following is his Letter to Trinity College, which, with the 
presentation copy of the Work, is still preserved in the Library of the 
College. 



NOTES. 



391 



Franciscus Baro de Veralamio, Yicecomes Sancti Albani, per- 
celebri collegio Sancti et Individu^ Trinitatis in Cantabrigia 
salutem. 

Res omnes earumque progressus initiis suis debentur. Itaque 
cum initia scientiarum e fontibus vestris hauserim, incrementa 
ipsarum vobis rependenda existimavi. Spero itidem fore, ut haec 
nostra apud vos, tanquam in solo nativo, felicius succrescant. 
Quamobrem et vos hortor, ut salva animi modestia, et erga veteres 
reverentia, ipsi quoque seientiarum augmentis non desitis : verum 
ut post volumina sacra verbi Dei et Scrip turarum, secundo loco 
volumen illud magnum operum Dei et creaturarum, strenue et prse 
omnibus libris (qui pro commentariis tantum haberi debent) evol- 
vatis. Yalete. 

This Letter is now inscribed on the side of the pedestal of the 
Statue of Bacon, which has been recently placed in the Ante-chapel. 

The most remarkable of his religious writings are his " Confession 
of Faith," Works, Yol. n. p. 181 . " A Prayer or Psalm, made by 
the Lord Bacon, Chancellor of England," p. 489. " A Prayer made 
and used by the Lord Chancellor Bacon," p. 490. " The Student's 
Prayer." " The Writer's Prayer," p. 493. ie The Characters of a 
Believing Christian, in Paradoxes and seeming Contradictions," 
p. 494. " Of Church Controversies/' p. 499. " Of the Pacification 
of the Church," p. 524. " Translation of certain Psalms," p. 553. 
The following is the dedication prefixed to the last publication in 
1625. 

TO HIS VERY GOOD FRIEND, 

MR. GEORGE HERBERT, 

The pains * that it pleased you to take about some of my writ- 
ings, I cannot forget ; which did put me in mind to dedicate to 
you this poor exercise of my sickness. Besides, it being my manner 
for dedications, to choose those that I hold most fit for the argu- 
ment, I thought, that in respect of divinity and poesy met, whereof 
the one is the matter, the other the stile of this little writing, I 
could not make better choice : so, with signification of my love 
and acknowledgment, I ever rest 

Your affectionate Friend, 

FR. ST. ALBAN. 
* Of translating part of the Advancement of Learning into Latin. 



392 



NOTES. 



Bacon's i( Student's Prayer " has been given in Sermon XIX. 
I will here add another Prayer of his, as a lit conclusion of this 
Volume. 

THE WRITER'S PRAYER. 

Thou, Father, who gavest the visible light as the first born 
of thy creatures, and didst pour into man the intellectual light 
as the top and consummation of thy workmanship, be pleased 
to protect and govern this work, which coming from thy good- 
ness, returneth to thy glory. Then after thou hadst reviewed the 
works which thy hands had made, beheldest that every thing was 
very good, and thou didst rest with complacency in them. But 
man reflecting on the works which he had made, saw that all was 
vanity and vexation of spirit, and could by no means acquiesce in 
them. Wherefore, if we labour in thy works with the sweat of our 
brows, thou wilt make us partakers of thy vision and of thy Sab- 
bath. We humbly beg that this mind may be stedfastly in us : 
and that thou, by our hands and also by the hands of others, on 
whom thou shalt bestow the same spirit, wilt please to convey a 
largess of new alms to thy family of mankind. These things we 
commend to thy everlasting love, by our Jesus, thy Christ, God 
with us. Amen. 



THE 



END. 



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